Just Friends
by tmntfan4eva
Summary: Three people. One fight. An innocent fall. Endless possibilities.
1. Fall From Grace

**Yes! It's that time! Juggling time! :D This is one of those stories I told you about not to long ago. And, as you may or may not have noticed, it's dxg central. This one will probably be one of the shorter ones too. I only hope you like the ride. But I must say, as with the next story and the one before this that I put out, don't expect regular updates. What I write on will depend on my mood.**

It was nearing the end of summer the day it happened. The day everything came crashing down for the three friends. Not that they were tight friends, but friends none the less despite their vast differences. Courtney, a brunette with emerald green eyes and skin dark enough so that many mistook her for a Mexican, was the straight A student. She never missed a day of school, recoiled at the notion of skipping, and went into convulsions when the possibility of a B came about. Duncan, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. He was a bad boy punk who didn't give a damn about the rules of the school or home, not even society. He went around making trouble every moment he found. He skipped school, or at least one class, every day and was a total heartbreaker. He had honed this skill with much practice and the aid of his exceptional looks. He had jet black hair with a green Mohawk sitting atop it, his eyes were a mix of bluish green, teal perhaps, his skin not to dark but not to light, and he had piercings covering his face. There was one by his nose, two above and below one eyebrow, and two in one ear. And, no surprise, they were the same shade as his eyes. Some girls were revolted by how he's 'desecrated' his body and tried their hardest to have nothing to do with him while the rest swooned over him on a daily basis. There were many choices because of this, and he wasn't picky. It was like a buffet, he had all he could eat and picked what he felt like at the time, dumping most within a day or two depending on his mood. Only Courtney was different. She's been like those girls who hated him, yet he, for some reason, refused to give up on her. No matter that he had plenty more choices, he wanted only her. And it took time, believe you me, but eventually he broke her. She gave in to him and became his official full time girl. There was no one else for either of them.

And then there's Gwen, the lonely little antisocial 'freak', as most would say, who didn't really belong to any clique. She was an undesirable. No one wanted to date her, never, and few even wished to associate themselves with her. But she didn't care. She was fine with being left alone to draw things, usually things where everyone else died. It wasn't that she actually wanted to see them fall prey to her intricate traps. For some reason she just couldn't help herself. What more was there to do when you had no one to talk to? But her wonderful personality wasn't the big thing that turned people off of her. Mostly it was her appearance. Her hair was dyed teal and dark green, verging on black, ears void of piercings, skin pale as a ghost, and clothes a mix of the colors of her hair. Everyone thought it to be odd. But what really pushed her appearance over the edge of just plain edgy and interesting into scaring off others was her eyes. They were darker then the darkest night, seemingly piercing through all she set eyes on, and contrasted greatly with the tone of her bleached skin. All this had garnered her the name 'Phantom' or 'Stalker' and occasionally the two combined for the especially brave. But never did anyone dare say these nicknames to her face nor did they cross her path intentionally. However the whispers never stopped. Not after the first week, month, or year. Even now, two years after she moved to this small town, the rumors still flew. It didn't help that she beat a boy up halfway through the first year, bringing her more unwanted attention. But that's not the point right now. Right now it's the summer after and things are about to get so much more complicated.

She, Gwen, was sitting under a lone tree out in the meadow that she'd fallen in love with since the first time she stumbled upon it. It was the one place she could take solace in with no fear of being intruded on just like it was the first place she remembered talking to Duncan with ease. And after that all the rest of the major events happened there too. She was writing in her journal, doodling in the margin whenever she couldn't think of the right word or wasn't sure how to tell what was happening at this point. This was why it was good for her to be gifted in both writing and drawing. And then, as she was getting to the good part of the day she heard voices. Faint at first, but obviously getting closer by the second.

"I hate you! I hate you! I **hate** you!" Courtney's cry reached Gwen. He'd done it again. Gwen was never really sure why, but he always managed to screw something up. The thrill was what the culprit was she guessed. Kissing another girl, gently touching them as he passed, and even full on sex. It happened all the time. There was no way Courtney didn't know, but it was only when she caught him did she throw a fit.

"Courtney, wait!" Duncan's cry followed shortly after.

"NO! Get away!" they were closer now. So close that if she were to stretch herself up as far as she could in her sitting position she could have seen the top of Courtney's head, brown hair gleaming beautifully in the sun. That was all that was beautiful. The rest was a mess. Her face was stained with tears, make-up running, and what appeared to be a bruise or two on her face. Not from Duncan, no way, it was from the girl she'd attacked earlier when she found him getting a bit to close to her. But don't worry, she may have gotten hit a time or two, but she won.

Babe!" he reached out his arm as if to grab her, but he was falling farther behind, making that impossible. It might not make much sense considering he had to be able to run like the wind regularly to get away from the cops for stealing, defacing property, and God knows what else. He was just tired. Curtsey of a late night pulling off a prank on the nerds with Gwen's aid.

"Stop following me!" the pitch of her voice grew higher, the way it always did whenever she was choking back more tears. "I don't want anything to do with you!"

All this commotion irritated the goth girl, all she wanted was peace and quiet. And she especially hated it when she could not find it in the one place no one was ever at. It was the worst of luck for her. Still she refused to look up to see if they were in view. She was intent on getting her thoughts out on paper no matter what was going on.

She was up the hill now and headed straight for the tree without any signs of slowing.

Gwen snickered when she ran right into it. "Nice going, genius." she should've known better then to mock her at a time like this, but they were friends. And she was in the mind set of Duncan. If she said that to him he would have laughed right back and teased her much the same.

"Shut the fuck up Gwen!" she snapped in a not so mad as I am sad tone as she straddled the large tree, scrambling up it's trunk like a monkey would have. But it was no surprise. Courtney always did something foolish to get away from Duncan after drama. Only she'd never invaded Gwen's place before. Never.

That's when she really caught Gwen's attention. Gwen raised a brow, frowning lightly as she was finally forced to close her journal with an irritated sigh. "Damn it Courtney. What are you doing?" she growled, rolling her eyes as she craned her neck to see Courtney, who was still climbing. It may sound harsh, but Gwen wasn't about to sympathize with her. It's not that she didn't feel bad for the girl after being cheated on, it was more so that Gwen had become tired of this cycle the dysfunctional couple was stuck in. That and her and Courtney were never very close. The only reason they associated themselves with each other was because of Duncan. They both cared deeply for him and as such couldn't bear being away from him for the amount of time the other wanted with him. As such they had no choice but to hang around the other a large percent of the time.

This time Courtney didn't bother responding. Not with words anyway. She did, however, increase the volume of her wails. This was her way of telling all to fuck off and if they didn't she would pretty much kill the poor unfortunate souls.

A growl formed in Gwen's throat. She didn't want to deal with this intruder. And she wouldn't be if she were anywhere else. So where the hell was Duncan? Had he not been right behind the bipolar prep? "Get down!" Gwen demanded, raising to her feet with a scowl now present on her face. She wanted Courtney off her tree. NOW.

"Nooooooooo!" Courtney screamed, finally ceasing her accent and crawled over onto a not so steady branch very close to the top. This was one of her better attempts to keep Duncan away. Most the time her ideas were lame and easily accessible. But Gwen didn't doubt that her best friend Duncan could find his way up there. He could escape detention centers. Why not scale a tree?

Gwen was about to yell a not so kind phrase up to her not so best friend when Duncan finally found his way up to the top. "C-Courtney…" he sucked in a deep breath, exhausted through and through. "wait…" he wheezed, cough following shortly after. "I'm…sorry." he said with a bit more steadiness, holding his head.

Gwen gladly turned her attention to Duncan and her hate to worry. Anything for him. "Are you ok?" she said softly, walking toward him so she might offer her condolences. But it didn't work out that way.

He snorted, mumbling something under his breath, straightening himself so that they were no longer a few inches apart in height, but him a whole foot.

She smiled lightly, unintentionally snickering at the stressed punk. "Sorry." she apologized quickly. "But what's the count to now? Still bent on believing she's 'the one'."

"Haha." he shook his head back and forth, mostly ignoring Gwen as he walked past her toward the tree in which Courtney hid.

And that was the end of that. The might have been moment was over just as fast as it began, with him quickly moving on to what was in fact the bigger issue aka Courtney. "Babe!" he cried up, cupping his hands around his mouth so that he was louder. "I'll give you a massage like you're always asking for!" Bribery. A man like Duncan's best friend. "I'll even take you to that restaurant of yours!" Neither Gwen or Duncan thought that he could get any more pathetic. But if it got her back then, to him, it was more then worth it.

Her cries died down a little and if one was to stare hard up at her like Duncan was they could see that she was seriously thinking of obliging. After all, it wasn't every day she was offered something like this. No. It was just every month, that's all. Of course, she still refused.

"No! Why not?" he exclaimed, throwing his arms into the arm with disbelief and aggravation abound. "You love that stupid shit! So why the fuck not!" he was crossing the border from a bit worried but collected straight into anger and, more likely then not, soon to be desperation.

"What kind of question is that?" she spat, hugging the trunk of the tree tightly, insecurity over the instability of the limb rising to the surface of her mind.

It was obvious he was growing angry, Gwen could even see that his face was turning red. Not from embarrassment or anything stupid like that, red from fury. "Get your ass down here!" he ordered, done with bargaining. And instead of helping the situation he made it ten times worse. Worse even then Gwen could've made it. Is he smart or what?

"Go fuck yourself!" she bellowed, sadness still managing to seep through into her voice. "Or better yet go fuck Kristen!" she added, voice shaking as the pain grew clearer in her tone.

"Why don't you grow up?" he snapped. "I was just talking to her!" he moved himself so that he was at the base of the tree, easily able to look up and see right where she was.

"Not unless 'talking' suddenly means squeezing her ass!" she started moaning again, sobs returning to boot. She was a wreck. And it would be this way for quite a while if one of them didn't change their tactics. It was summer after all. Neither had anywhere to be, so it would take longer for them to break the other. No school, Courtney's only incentive and for Duncan there was nobody to prank as well as nothing good enough to steal.

Duncan grit his teeth, mouth curled into a snarl. His lips parted to say something, but instead Gwen's voice was what was heard. "Stop it." she sighed irritably, taking a firm hold of his arm in case he did something stupid. He turned his head to look at her.

She was taken aback by how cold his eyes managed to look. Sure she'd seen it before, but not when he was looking at her, only when he looked at others. It happened all the time actually. Take his girl, he gives you the stare, try to outrank him, same, pull a fast one on him, same. But no matter what he was feeling about any person, hate, bitterness, sadness, or whatever he'd always make sure that when he looked at her his face was void of those negative emotions. His eyes were soft, and smile warm, fooling everyone but her. "She's upset." I motioned up at her. "Even I know that." she meant it as a joke, but it didn't come out that way. "Just…don't say something you'll regret…" she trailed off, lowering her gaze and released his arm.

He sighed lightly, hate slowly evaporating. "Courtney…look…I'm sorry." he yelled softly, trying to sound less threatening and more on her side.

"Lying son of a bitch!" she, on the other hand, wasn't about to give in. She was pissed, more pissed then usual, and wanted to show him that. That and that he'd messed up big time for once. She was done giving chances, done forgiving his petty mistakes, done with him.

"Baby, please." he half begged, voice pained as he wrapped his muscular arms about the tree so that he could scale it much like Courtney had. Although, somehow, he was much slower then his counterpart. Gwen was amazed by this as she watched.

"Fuck off!" she screeched, screaming wordlessly the instant the words passed her lips. It was an awful scream, but not the worst the others had heard. Duncan's worst scream was when another girl he'd been with was nearly killed by one of his former friends. That was when he stopped bringing girlfriends along for the ride of his heists unless he was sure they could handle it. And so far Gwen, his best friend, was the only one that could fit the bill. Gwen's worst hadn't really happened yet, but it soon would, much sooner then she thought. But if she were to pick in this moment then she'd have to say when her first and only boyfriend along with her best friend, back in Northern Canada, were caught cheating with each other. She'd startled them so badly that they'd jumped a foot, falling right off their perch on the kissing rock, earsplitting screams breaking through the silence that surrounded them as they plummeted to the jagged rocks below. Gwen stared down at them long after their bodies made impact, hand immediately brought to cover her mouth. She was scared, she didn't know what to do. People would know they were gone, it'd take only a day. And that's why she left. Moved far away. She told no one but her parents, leaving her friends, her cheery personality, and lifestyle all behind her. Never to unbury it again.

Gwen stared up after him, frozen in her place yet increasingly bored. She just wanted this stupid drama to be over once and for all. She wanted to be able to go where she wanted without worrying that at any given moment Courtney the princess might ruin the moment with her incessant bitching. She wanted to have her time with Duncan.

Duncan continued to beg, full out beg now, as he slowly climbed. "Courtney, please! I didn't mean to hurt you! I-I **love **you!" he swore up and down. "I-I just want another chance." his once smooth breathing was starting to get ragged again, making his voice delayed and labored.

He could sense the tears falling from her face because of the sobs that were heard. No one sobbed that much without tears. "N-No!" she insisted, shaking her head violently from side to side. Not that it meant much. She was obviously losing her will to resist him and his pleas and as such would surely give in like she always did. And, not that she really noticed at this point, but the branch was starting to wobble underneath her. It was not meant to hold this weight, not even with someone as tiny as Courtney. She also didn't notice that Duncan was close to reaching her on her little perch either.

"Don't cry." he cooed, stopping as he reached the branch directly below hers. He was exhausted , not understanding why. He didn't exactly exercise, but that was no reason for this sudden tiredness. "C-Come…" he trailed off. "…on…" his breathing was extremely labored, face warm, hands shaking. He wanted some water, but refused to give this up. But he really didn't feel like climbing any further. So he reached for Courtney's leg, fingers brushing the bottom of her shoe. "Damn it…" he cursed, tone level. Then it hit him. He fully realized that he didn't have to be sitting and stood, shakily at first, but quickly steadied himself. Now he could easily grab hold of the beautiful brunette. And so he did. He took a firm hold of her skinny leg, praying that she wouldn't start kicking and make the both of them fall off.

His hand was warm to her, her and her naturally cold body, so she immediately took notice. Jumping up to her feet instinctively. "Nooo!" she screamed, nearly falling down towards Duncan in her haste to stand. However, she managed to cling on to the trunk of the tree as she stood on her one foot, the other still dangling down a bit with Duncan holding on to it. "Get the fuck off me!" she was more pissed off and scared then she was hurt at this point. She even wanted him to fall. She just didn't want to go down with him.

"Courtney, stop it!" Duncan cried as she tried to escape his hold by kicking her captured foot frantically. He then decided he'd had enough of this game and used his other hand which had been his stabilizer to grab onto the same leg. He believed that with this amount of strength he could easily pull the stupid girl from her perch.

"Stoooop!" her scream was earsplitting, but nothing more. It wasn't the kind of scream that made you think 'is she dying' or 'maybe someone's hurt.' It was nothing short of annoying to the unfortunate people nearby. And that included Gwen.

Gwen growled at her, knowing fully well she would not hear. She was just trying to hold her tongue. She refused to be dragged into such a petty argument. Although she fully supported Duncan, even though she felt he deserved better.

Courtney might've been strong but Duncan was way stronger, especially when he wanted to be. And with his sudden pull on her she was finding it increasingly hard to keep her balance and felt as if she might start crying again. "D-Duncan…" she stuttered, "let go!" she kicked him then. Despite her fear of falling she used her leg keeping her up to smash his fingers as hard as she could.

"Holy shit!" was his automatic reaction as was retracting both hands. It wasn't to often that he cursed directly at her, but this time he couldn't help it. "Bitch." he hissed, back in a sitting position as he glared up at her.

She cowered slightly, but only for a moment, hopping back to her feet to jump up and reach the next branch. She sighed with relief when her hands closed around the branch. Now all she had to do was pull herself up. Duncan wouldn't be up to follow her for a minute or two so it was ok that she was struggling some. As long as she pulled it off before he rose.

Just as she predicted it took him a while to get up. And regardless of his tough guy exterior even as he got on his feet he found himself clutching his hands, one in the other. "Get down here!" he demanded, through with this. He swiftly latched onto the limb Courtney had been on previously, easily swinging himself back and forth enough to gain the momentum necessary to flip himself in a full cycle to land perfectly on his feet on the branch. It wobbled more then naturally, Duncan glancing momentarily at the support before looking back at his girlfriend.

She had already made it two more branches up to the last one. There was no where left for her to go but down. And that would be painful. Undoubtedly. She was starting to hyperventilate some, taking hold of her chest. "G-Go away…" she uttered it so softly that she knew he wouldn't hear. "Please…"

Duncan hopped to reach the next branch, but somehow missed. He stared blankly up at it. It was high. He scowled. He jumped again, once more falling back to the same branch. He was growing frustrated at his inability to get somewhere Courtney could. He knew he was better then her highness the selfishness. He would prove it too. He jumped. Another fall. The limb of the tree shook. Rinse and repeat. The only change was that the more he tried the harder the limb shook.

"Duncan, stop!" Courtney warned, leaning her head over and down a bit to see him.

"Shut up!" he snapped back, ignoring her words. He even punched the body of the tree, not to spite her or even because she was nagging. It was due to the fact he was losing to a tree. He wanted to win. He didn't have as much of an issue with losing as Courtney, but, depending, he could be just as temperamental.

"Duncan! You fucking idiot! You're gonna-" and she stopped cold, eyes widening like she already knew the outcome of his next action.

He glared at her as he leapt with all the force he could muster, fully believing this was it. And in a sense he was right. His fingers closed around the branch and he half smiled in victory. Only a half smile because it was short lived. He didn't get a good of enough hold on it to stay up, despite his strength, and he fell. He came down on the branch for the final time. All this force finally broke the limb right off and Duncan found himself falling far and fast. He had brilliant reaction time, but this was so unexpected for him that he couldn't do a thing about it. Only him, and both girls, could watch the scene play out in slow motion.

Gwen didn't have the view that Courtney had and as such couldn't see the fear etched in Duncan's features, but she felt it more so then Courtney. As he fell she was one with him. It was like she could feel the wind on her body as Duncan did, his heart beating a million miles an hour, his voice caught in his throat, the pain of the branches scrapping him and, most of all, the desire he had to cling onto something, anything to keep himself from hitting the ground. As all this went through both Gwen and Duncan's body and mind Gwen was frozen in place, eyes wide with unbound fear, mouth a flat line, and heart crumbling.

Courtney, on the other hand, had a perfect view of the tragedy. She could see plainly the fear in his rapidly widening eyes. She saw his arms reach for the quickly passing branches, she saw his mouth move to speak with no words resulting, she even, at the last moment, glimpsed what he had tried to say. 'I'm sorry.' That, in the end, was what pushed her hysteria over the edge so that she erupted into a full fledged scream. A scream so eerie, bone chilling, and blood curdling that it was easily the worst scream the three had or would ever hear. It was a scream of pure terror. Nothing could compare. It's what love does.

And then he made impact. He made a smack equivalent to one falling onto pavement, only this smack was much worse. It hit so hard because of the distance. Trust me. It's worse. One might even argue that they could've heard the crunch of bones as they shattered. And then, as his head hit hard on a rock the girls fully lost it. The blow didn't make a louder sound then the initial hit, but it did wind up louder as the sound stuck in his throat was forced out by the hit.

The earsplitting cry brought Courtney to tears and Gwen to her knees and then, as the two continued to freak out, Duncan began to slowly lose his grip on reality. He could hear Gwen's panicked voice muttering to please be ok but that was about it. And then he was gone…

**What do you think of it so far? To unrealistic? idk. Any constructive criticism is much appreciated. :) Plz review!**


	2. Against the Clock

**A very important note: I have little to no idea how hospitals work. I was in one when I was like 4, but I remember nothing of it. Other then that enjoy! :D**

Everything was hectic. Courtney was suffering a panic attack, something that she, and a vast majority of her peers, knew could be fatal. Gwen had tears in her eyes as she lifted Duncan from the hard ground into her small, pale arms. Only Duncan was at peace. In a sense at least. Him having lost consciousness caused his painful screams to fade to silence, moans fallen back within himself, and fear ridden expression to turn to solemn peace. The only thing missing from this scene were sirens in the distance that so often followed a disaster such as this. And truthfully they might've been apart of this mishap too if the two girls were capable of thinking straight. Things being as they were though the call was never made. "Duncan! Duncan! Please, open your eyes!" Gwen pleaded with him, trying her best to force the tears back where they belonged all the while. "Come on!" she begged, shaking him lightly as if it might really do either of them good, just a little. Stranger yet she could be seen shutting her eyes tight, doing what she'd only ever done when she caused the death of that poor couple. She was praying. She prayed that this was nothing more then a hit to the head and he would soon open his eyes back up to reveal that life she'd grown to love in their teal depths.

Courtney was beginning to get a hold of herself with the aid of an inhaler she'd swiped from her mother. But what she really needed was to see that Duncan was ok. Not that she'd ever admit it, especially not so soon after they'd been having one of their fights. She refused to be seen as weak and soft. And right now apologizing wasn't the most ideal approach anyway. For one thing he was out cold and two, and probably most important, was that she was to worked up to even think of descending the tree. She didn't want to end up like Duncan.

Gwen was on the verge of having a full fledged breakdown of her own. "Duncan you dumbass! Wake! Up!" she sounded harsh, but in reality was no where near that way. It was her fear talking, taking control of her very being and willing her to speak out like she'd never do under normal circumstances. "Stop it!" Courtney's high pitched squeal was heard above Gwen's. "He can't hear you." she said flatly, wiping at her eyes to make the tears invisible, non existent even. "It's pointless."

Gwen shook with fury. "Don't say that!" Again, it was her fear doing this. "What kind of girlfriend are you! You're basically saying he's dead!" The notion caught Gwen off guard despite her having said it and she felt a lump form in her throat and she had try with all her might to swallow it back down.

"Stupid Goth bitch! NO! Never!" she was quick to snap back, crossing her arms indignantly as she thrust her head into the air. "It's that your whining and bitching isn't helping! He'll wake up when he wakes up! Duh!" she spat, rolling her eyes as if this was so very obvious.

"You-" Gwen stopped before the idea had even fully formed. For a movement caught her full attention.

Duncan stirred ever so slightly in her arms, groaning as he moved a hand to his head to grip it tenderly. "Gha…" he murmured, no real meaning in the word, if it could even be called that.

"My God…" Gwen sighed in relief, sniffling heavily while rubbing at her eyes. "Can you not talk?" she pressed further, wanting to be able to assess the severity of his condition without doctors first so that she wouldn't have to twiddle her thumbs and freak out even longer while waiting for those incompetent losers to do it. Besides, she knew what she was doing. Her mother was a doctor after all.

"I-I…uugh…" his breathing grew labored still and eyelids became heavy. He could barely keep them open. It was a fight all the while as he stared up at the girl before him.

"Talk to me!" she commanded, gripping onto him tighter. "Come on!"

"It…hurts…" he managed to force himself to say throw his tightly drawn lips. This was the most coherent he'd been, but it wasn't all that helpful to either of them. It was obvious that 'it' hurt and there was nothing either could do.

Gwen sighed softly, looking up towards the sky. "At least you can talk. That means nothing's wrong with the cerebral cortex. Very Good." she'd learned that that was one of the things to check first. Why exactly? She didn't bother finding out. As long as she knew what to check it was all good. "Now will you try to stand for me?" she asked softly.

He nodded slowly, sitting up at about the same speed. He cringed at the movement, bringing a hand to his side instinctively. Still he did not stop. He rose to his feet with a bit of a struggle, wobbling about like a two year old learning to walk. It made Gwen worry some, but not enough to verbalize her thoughts. "I-I'm good…" he stuttered, leaving his left foot up off the ground as much as he could. It was sprained.

Gwen smiled. "I'm so glad!" she exclaimed, clasping her hands together.

Courtney really couldn't tell what was going on but she gathered that Duncan wasn't dead by the way Gwen suddenly seemed so happy. She half smiled at this, happy Duncan was ok, and rolled her eyes because Gwen was so clingy.

Duncan started to smile back at her, but stopped halfway through the simple action for his stomach had suddenly twisted itself into a knot. He felt off kilter immediately after and he clutched his stomach in pain.

"Duncan?" Gwen cried with uncertainty, leaping forward toward the boy. "Are you alright!"

Duncan wanted to answer her but once again he didn't have the chance. Only this time the reason why was much more obvious. The pain in his stomach had forced its way up in the direction of his throat and he felt like gagging. He turned away from Gwen just in time too. Immediately after the chunky liquid filled his mouth and spewed out all over the ground where he'd once laid. It was the sickest thing any of the three had seen, this being so because none had ever been sick enough to throw up.

"Oh God! Duncan!" Gwen half screamed, covering her mouth with both hands, that same sick sensation coming to her stomach. She always felt this way when seeing others get sick. Yet somehow she didn't get sick afterward. She figured now was different because she was so close to the guy.

"I thought you said you were alright!" Courtney screamed with irritation mingled with a hint of worry. She had her hands cupped around her mouth so that she knew they'd hear, bringing her hands back to cover her mouth soon after as she felt something rising in her own throat. "I swear if you make me sick Duncan I'll kill you." she growled to herself, swallowing the disgusting taste of vomit back down.

The stuff was coming out so fast and constantly that Duncan was doubled over, hands on knees, struggling to find air through the mass of half solidified substance. But it did end. After a minute of nauseating sickness it was over. He gasped for air as the leftovers dripped from his nose and mouth. "…Sick…" he wheezed, lightheadedness not helping him in the least. In fact, it made it even harder for him to stand upright without stumbling about. He stumbled right into the tree and groaned, saying, "Shitty day…" before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed to the ground for the second time of the day, hitting not as hard as the first time.

"Duncan!" Gwen shrieked, avoiding the puke as she jolted over to his side, that same panic which had consumed her minutes ago coming back.

"Re-lax!" Courtney yelled at her, finally calm enough to descend the giant tree. As she swung on the limbs to get closer to the ground she said, "He just passed out is all." Then, once she jumped from the last branch to land on the ground with grace, she added to her know it all comment. "It happens after trauma a lot." she stood fully and walked over to the Goth girl. "He'll be fine." she flipped her hand around to demonstrate that this was about how severe him passing out was.

Gwen scowled up at the clueless brunette. "Are you **stupid**." she snapped. "Do you actually go to those special classes that you claim to take? Because I know that what you're saying is bull crap." Gwen snorted with irritation, crossing her arms to better match her feelings at the moment. "Whenever someone hits their head, especially from such a high fall, passing out is **never** a good thing."

Courtney emitted a low growl. "Says you! And I doubt you know what you're talking about either!" Courtney huffed, cheeks puffing out slightly.

"Oh, well, since you admitted that you know absolutely nothing, something really out of character I might add, I'll be glad to enlighten you." she took a deep breath. "When someone hits their head a number of things could result because of it. One, they more then likely are knocked unconscious, as you saw before. Two, they may become temporarily unable to speak even after waking up, which is a sign of some degree of damage to the cerebral cortex. Three, they could lose their sense of place, a lack of memory if you will. This usually clears up pretty quick. " she was smirking as she lifted Duncan up into a standing position to drag him along. "Worst of all bleeding in the brain can cause serious and permanent brain damage to multiple sections and sometimes even…death." Gwen shivered as she spoke the word. She'd never liked the thought and as such couldn't imagine being a doctor like her mother was.

Courtney swallowed hard, suddenly dearly frightened for her unconscious boyfriend. Sure she was mad at the sorry cheater but she didn't want him dead. In fact, she wouldn't be able to live with herself if this came to pass.

Gwen noticed her newfound expression of unease and guilt and frowned. But she didn't offer kind words like most everyone else might have. Instead she barked orders. "Now get your lazy ass over here and help me carry him! I know you don't want to see anything bad happen to him! No matter what you say." she stared Courtney down with an intense glare, hoping not to break her but at least to get her to help more then she was.

Courtney lowered her head, a scowl still there, as she slowly made her way over to the pair. She helped by lifting up Duncan's legs. He was heavier then she expected. Dead weight always was though so she shouldn't have been so surprised. "Where are we going…? She muttered lamely.

Gwen sighed irritably. "My house."

Courtney whined. "Why your crummy house? Hat place is so creepy and dirty and-and-"

"Courtney!" Gwen snapped, cutting the brunette off. "Will you **please** just shut up!" she breathed in and out deeply to remain calm. "As much as I'd **love** to go all the way to your perfect house we're going to the closest place. And my house is only a mile away." Gwen stared hard at Courtney, not wanting to fight over something so incredibly stupid.

This was not enough for Courtney though. She groaned in response. "A whole mile!" she griped, using her complaints to give her a sense of ease in this awful situation. She was so hurt that even this barely helped her. What she really needed was to see those teal eyes of her boyfriend. "This is gonna kill me!" she didn't notice her bad grammar, that's how badly she was doing in her head.

Gwen slammed a foot down, stopping in her tracks so she could fully face Courtney without the fear of falling over something by walking backwards. "I said shut up!" she snapped. "Duncan is hurt and all you can think about is yourself! I don't care if he cheated on you or if he killed your mother! You can not be so incredibly selfish! It's practically inhuman." Gwen ranted. "If you say another word that isn't concerning his wellbeing I swear I will break some bone in your body. Got it?" she hissed, dead serious about every bit of it.

Courtney searched her face, mainly her eyes, for any sign of a lie. There was nothing. She was astounded and a little scared to realize Gwen wasn't kidding about this. At the same time Courtney was seriously impressed by the amount of anger she was spewing out. She wasn't known for having a temper so seeing her like this was definitely at treat Courtney fully intended to enjoy. Courtney parted her lips to rely with a simple 'yes', clamping a hand over her mouth as she remembered she was forbidden to talk. Sure it wasn't like saying yes would kill any of them, but she didn't feel like testing the Goth girl before her. Not right now. So instead she merely nodded quickly.

"Good." Gwen muttered with a devilish smirk. "Now get going!" she commanded. She was getting a kind of high from this, finally able to understand why Courtney loved the action so much.

They ran on for thirty minutes, three fourths of a mile, before Courtney couldn't go on anymore. As much as she wished to save her boyfriend she couldn't take another step. She had been wheezing heavily long before and now was holding her side with one of her hands. It hurt so damn much. She was barely walking. "C-Can't…go…any-anymore…" she huffed.

"What was that?" Gwen barked, raising a brow at the severely slowed girl behind her. "I know you didn't just say something about yourself." she was giving Courtney a chance to change her answer despite the fact Gwen believed she really didn't deserve it.

"C-Can't…no…" she muttered, finally collapsing to the ground, her heart pounding in her ears and breathing shallow. She gasped from the air necessary to keep going, gripping her sides tight to quail the unimaginable ache consuming her.

Courtney!" Gwen cried, noticing the lurch from behind her and Duncan sudden weight shift. Gwen spun around quickly, concern showing through in her dark eyes for Courtney. A rare event which she never expected to happen. "Are you ok?" her worry even came out in her tone. Of course a portion of the worry was still for Duncan who she felt needed immediate attention.

Courtney shook her head slowly in the negative. "N-No…"

Gwen sighed irritably, running her fingers through her hair to semi calm herself down. "God...what to do…what to do…?" she repeated over and over, pacing back and forth to keep from working herself up to much.

Courtney stared at Gwen all the while as she slowly regained her steady breathing pattern, the pain still there. "Go…" she said softly. "Go get a phone…"

Gwen ceased her pacing to stare down at Courtney. "A phone? That's it!" she cried excitedly. "I'll go the rest of the way and call an ambulance. You'll just have to stay her with him." Gwen's last sentence was full of tenseness. She wasn't sure if she could trust Courtney with Duncan when she had been so mad at him earlier for supposedly cheating. For all Gwen knew this was all an act meant to get her away so Courtney could make it less likely for Duncan to pull out of this. Gwen hesitated in running off because of this. She wanted to give Courtney specific instructions. "And you have to be sure and keep him propped up on something, make sure he never stops breathing, and-" she stopped short seeing that her worries were for naught.

Courtney hadn't listened to a word Gwen had said, it was obvious, yet she was still doing as she should. She already had Duncan up in her arms, cradling him as she gently rubbed the dirt from his face and hair. The look on her face was sweeter then honey and so pitiful Gwen felt a mushy half smile spread across her lips. Courtney's eyes were full of tears mixed with an emotion rare enough for normal people, but nearly nonexistent for her…selfless sorrow, pure sadness for her boyfriend. "Sorry…" she choked out, biting her upper lip to keep the tears at bay. "Please…forgive me…" In that moment Gwen knew that what they had was more sacred then any other couple she'd ever seen walk around. For they may hate and fight each other ninety percent of the time, but that ten percent was more then enough to get them through life with more love then all the other couples in the world.

Gwen sighed contentedly, turning and running as fast as she could go. She was one of the fastest runners at school so she was going pretty fast. If not for Duncan and Courtney slowly her down she would have made it home in fifteen minutes easy, which was why only four minutes later she was running up the driveway of her house. It was the model of a perfect home, white on the outside and multicolored on the inside, a two story building that most wished to own.

Gwen burst through the door to her lovely home, doubling over in pain. "Got to…get to…phone." she huffed, walking slowly with the aid of the walls over to the phone on the wall by the TV which her twelve year old brother was watching at the moment. She ignored him momentarily as she punched in her mothers number, waiting impatiently for her to pick up. "Come on mom." she breathed into the mouthpiece. She didn't have time for one of her mothers 'moods' where she decided she wouldn't pick up because nothing her kids had to say could pertain to her job. "Mom!" she half screamed as if this would gather her attention somehow.

Her brother looked up from his trance on the TV. "Be quiet!" he commanded, pointing at Gwen. "I'm trying to see if Pikachu beats Mewtwo!" he cried exasperatedly.

Gwen grit her teeth. "Shut up!" she barked back. "I'm trying to keep someone from dying! Don't you think that's a little more important! Huh?" she glared darkly at her naïve brother, fed up with his obsessions.

Her brother lowered his head in shame, slowly taking his gaze from her back to rest on the TV. He didn't say another word on the matter either. Not to Gwen or even to the characters in the show when they were stupid.

"Hello?" her mother's cool voice said over the phone.

"Mom!" Gwen cried, gripping the phone tighter by the second. "Mom! I need help!" her breathing was quickly rising in frequency.

Her mother's cheery expression faded to immense worry and fear as her daughters tone sunk in. "What's the matter honey?" she pressed, looking about herself to see if anyone was around to see her 'slacking off'.

"It's Duncan mom! He-He's in trouble!" the tears filled her eyes for the umpteenth time today, her unwilling to let them fall. "W-We were up by the tree…the old tree…and-and Courtney, it was so-so-" she was talking a million miles an hour, only understanding herself because she thought it before they spilled out of her throat.

"Whoa! Whoa!" her mother interjected. "Easy, baby! You need to calm down! I can't understand you. You have to talk slower." she repeated constantly, hoping deeply to get soothe her daughter after whatever traumatic event she'd endured.

Gwen's hands were shaking now as she held onto the phone for dear life. "I…I was at the tree." she paused, taking a deep breath. "Courtney, h-her and D-Duncan, they came up there." her lip quivered and her voice caught in her throat. She, however, forced herself to keep going. "T-They fought, climbed the tree and he-he…" she trailed off, whimpering lightly. "He's unconscious."

He brother was staring at her strangely, no longer interested in his show. He wanted to know what was going on with his sister. He'd heard the name Duncan and snapped to attention. He knew she liked him some, a small crush if you will, and made sure to tune into everything involving him, his sister, and most importantly his current significant other.

Her mother reacted rather badly to this revelation. She brought a hand to her mouth, eyes wide with horror. "Oh no." she breathed more to herself then to Gwen. She didn't want her to know she, the doctor, was also worried about this scenario. "Honey, I'll be over there as soon as possible."

"No!" Gwen screamed into the receiver. "Get an ambulance!"

"No." she snapped. "You called me for a reason. If you didn't want me to be the one coming you would have just called 911 like any other person." she sighed softly. "Besides, I know you know how all this works. And I'm sure it scares you."

"Mom!" she screamed, voice trembling. "Just…just h-hurry…" she whispered.

Her mother bit her lip, holding the phone between her shoulder and her ear as she gripped the steering wheel as tight as she could and floored the car. "I'm coming baby. Just…don't panic." she didn't wait for her daughter to reply, flipping the phone shut with immense force. It wasn't that she didn't want to hear her daughter's voice. She just couldn't bear to listen to her fall to pieces like she was. Duncan was her one and only real friend in this place. No one, not in the whole two years they'd been here, had managed to work their way into Gwen's heart like he had. Her mother liked him pretty well too because he gave Gwen something to live for. So she could only imagine her daughters pain in this moment as she drove on.

Gwen just stared at the phone for a minute after the clicking sound of her mother hanging up reached her. She didn't know what to do now. She should've gone back to Courtney to see how Duncan was doing, if he was awake or even still breathing. She knew this was the best course of action. It was merely that she could no longer control her body for some reason or another. She guessed shock. So when he body decided to collapse to the floor after a moment she was not surprised. She went along with it, wrapping her arms around herself protectively like doing so might keep out all else in the world. Only it didn't. Despite the effort she was incapable of keeping her emotions under control and the flow of tears broke free of her eyes, rolling down her pale face like a river. She was sobbing uncontrollably as she shook with undeniable fear and distress. She no longer had any hope to cling to neither did she care if all easily saw this sad fact.

Her brother was frowning deeply as he looked upon the sight of his broken sister. He wanted to know what had gone wrong up at the tree, but he didn't want to make her already unstable state worse. He was young, but he wasn't stupid. His mom always said people in shock should not be messed with unless they got to the point of suicidal. And he was sure Gwen wouldn't get that far before Duncan got better from whatever it was that was wrong.

Her mother was a pulling up beside their house in a matter of minutes, she'd sped through town with no regard of the speed limit. She was sure many people driving around her were severely peeved by her actions but she didn't care a bit. All she was thinking of was her daughter and the situation she was stuck in at the moment. "Gwen!" she screamed as loud as her body would allow. "Gwen!"

Gwen had mostly cried herself out for the moment and perked ever so slightly as her mother's voice reached her. "M-Mom…" she muttered softly.

Her mother burst through the door. "Gwen!" she screamed again, looking about herself with a crazed look in her eyes.

"M-Mom…!" Gwen said slightly stronger then before, jumping up to run toward her. "Mom…h-he…he's not here. He's with Courtney a forth of a mile that way." she pointed vaguely off toward the north east.

Angela, Gwen's mom, went to say something but stopped herself, instead deciding upon merely nodding slowly. She then grabbed onto her daughter's hand and half dragged her out of the house back toward the car. She was quick to open the passenger door and shove her in before darting over to the driver's side. Still, she did not ask for directions. She was more willing to leave her daughter to her silence then risk disturbing her in her fragile state of mind.

Never-the-less Gwen opted to speak. "M-Mom…" she muttered weakly.

Her mother looked up instantly. "Yes honey?"

"Go…that way." Gwen pointed shakily over toward a dead end street, lip quivering all the while.

Her mother looked miserable as she nodded to her daughter, never letting her eyes stray from the road.

Gwen was out of the car before it came to a complete stop, jumping foolishly from it and running over to Courtney and Duncan. "Courtney! Come on!" she barked.

Courtney stared up at Gwen with a confused expression from both the car before them not being an ambulance and Gwen's stained face. But she only spoke of one of the two issues. "Are you…crying…?" she muttered softly, wiping a stray tear from her own eye.

Gwen was quick to rub at her face once her state was vocalized. She wasn't as paranoid about weakness as Courtney, but she didn't want to look weak in this moment. Not now. Courtney would need for her to be better then this. "No." she growled through her teeth. "Now get up!" she snapped harshly, eyes giving off a more sad then made feel.

Courtney nodded a little, lifting Duncan into a standing position as Gwen had done earlier, hoping for some assistance.

Gwen was quick to assist, lifting his feet up and jolting from her spot without a second thought.

Courtney was knocked off kilter a bit from the quickness Gwen displayed, but she tried not to let it show to much. She was up where she needed to be and helping put Duncan in the front seat instantaneously. She made sure she was the one to snap the seatbelt on too.

"Get in!" Gwen continued to order Courtney around, taking her by the shoulder and pushing her over to the far side of the back seat. She saw that Courtney glared at her, but ignored it, jumping in after her. "Go mom! Go!" she cried frantically as she slammed the door shut behind her.

Her mother reacted immediately to her daughter's frantic cries, flooring the pedal as she had when leaving the hospital. As such they were back as quickly if not faster then the time it took for her to reach them. "Hurry girls." she said with pity dripping from her meant to be sharp voice.

The three carried him through the hospital as best they could, quick to make it to the emergency room. Although regrettably Gwen's mom was forced to push the girl's away from where he was kept. "What! Why! You can't do this to me!" Courtney screamed, those accursed tears returning to her red eyes.

She shook her head back and forth. "Sorry Courtney. It's protocol. You can't come in until he is stable."

Gwen gloomily made her way over to a seat in the waiting room, head hanging in defeat. She didn't bother arguing like Courtney was bent on doing. She knew better then that. It didn't matter that the doctor was her mother, she wouldn't win this fight. She might as well save her energy for another time. She'd most definitely need it if something were to go irrefutably wrong.

"Get out of the way!" Courtney continued to scream. "He's my boyfriend! I want to see him! MOVE!" her fists shook uncontrollably, her lip quivering.

"Sorry." she shrugged. "I'll come get you later." she then turned ever so slowly and reentered the room where chaos was breaking loose.

Gwen swallowed hard, not wanting to breakdown again. But she couldn't keep her mouth shut. As she saw Courtney sink to the floor she realized she had managed to not go through the breaking process like Gwen had. "Courtney…" she whispered, waiting for her to turn her head toward her before continuing. "Come…sit." she patted the seat next to her. "Please…" Gwen added, throat catching.

Courtney looked dejectedly at the seat then back to Gwen, not sure if she wanted to be near this girl right now. It wasn't her fault Duncan was like this, but…she needed someone to blame. And there was no way in hell she would blame herself. She was to good for that. Still, she found herself slowly picking herself back up and walking zombie like over to sit next to the Goth girl. "What?" she muttered softly as she took her place.

Gwen sighed lightly. "I don't know what's going on right now." Courtney's body tensed as did Gwen's. The same thing crossing their mind…_death_. She shook the notion. "But whatever happens, we need to promise something." she paused to swallow back the tears and move her hand over top of Courtney's. "We need to promise that we won't ever give up on him. I mean…he'll probably come out of it fine, perhaps a small concussion." she stopped once more to stifle a whimper. Even this was sounding suckish to her. "But…if not…we have to believe he'll be ok. And never separate. All we have is each other now." Gwen tentatively looked up into Courtney's emerald eyes. They were glazed over slightly, but she was ok, Gwen knew. "Promise…?"

Courtney had shivered at the contact of Gwen's cold hand, but she had remained quiet enough through it all. Still, she wasn't sure. She didn't know if, after Duncan betraying her, that she could empathize with him once he was ok or even when he wasn't. The only thing keeping her here and on the verge of tears was the simple fact that he could die because of her. The guilt was what bound her to him. Once that was gone she wasn't sure if she wanted to be apart of any of this or him anymore. "I…" she trailed off, rubbing the back of her neck nervously.

"Courtney…?" Gwen pressed, that fear creeping into her tone.

Courtney sighed. "I…yes." she couldn't say no. She needed someone right now. Just like Gwen she was on the verge of losing her sanity. So for this moment, yes, she was willing to promise this. The future was all that was in question for her. Not that she would tell Gwen this. It would most definitely stick a wedge in their barely there friendship because Gwen was so deeply connected with Duncan. If Courtney even thought of abandoning him in his time of need Gwen would practically kill her. Courtney was slightly bothered by this from time to time, but for the most part she found no evidence that Gwen was into her boy. Sure she caught her staring at him and draping her arm around him, but they were best friends. Besides, Gwen was better then that bitch Kristen. Even if she was into Duncan she wouldn't dare steal him away. This was what let Courtney allow her to be around Duncan as much as she was.

Gwen smiled weakly. "Good." she breathed, squeezing her hand gently. "I'm glad I won't be alone."

Courtney's whole body shook as her soon to be betrayal at away at her. She was such an awful person. She felt she didn't deserve Gwen's condolence. It was this deep aching in her heart that prompted her to throw herself at Gwen. She wrapped her arms around Gwen's neck, transferring her quakes to her. "I-I'm so sc-scared!" Courtney stuttered. "I don't-don't want him dead. I-I was just…just mad!" she whined into Gwen's ear, causing her pity to grow tenfold.

Gwen was now shaking herself, resting her head upon Courtney's shoulder. "It'll be alright. Duncan is stronger then this. Falling from a stupid tree won't get him. I know!" Gwen insisted weakly, barely believing it herself. "You just gotta…believe."

Courtney's whimpers and moans continued. Although they had quieted considerably since the start. "Y-Yeah…" was all she could think to say in this moment. What more could there be?

Gwen was intent on soothing this broken girl. So she started to rub her back methodically. It was an odd gesture for her, a girl comforting a girl, but she couldn't stop herself. She felt obligated.

They remained this way, each helping to calm the other, until the door creaked open. They both jumped from each other instantly, eager as well as fearful of the news. Gwen's mother was smiling though, so it was obvious all was well. "He's fine." she said with cheer. "You can go in now."

Both were up in a heartbeat, pushing their way through the small door to reach him. It was a race, no longer were they one. It was once more only about them individually. "Duncan!" Courtney cried, leaping over to the left side of his bed. "Oh, God! I'm so glad you're ok." she whimpered, soft tear filled eyes suddenly turning hard and cold moments after the words passed her lips. "But you are an idiot!" she snapped.

"Hey!" Gwen growled, narrowing her eyes at Courtney for her quickness to turn cold toward him. He was still hurt. She had no right. "Don't talk to him like that!"

"I can say whatever I want!" she retorted.

Gwen rolled her eyes at the inconsiderate girl. "Whatever." she murmured under her breath, focusing all of her attention on the boy in the bed before her. He was all that mattered right now. She quickly found stool to pull up to his bedside, smiling warmly as she took her seat. "I'm **so** glad you're alright." she muttered, wiping a her eyes some more. "You scared me to death." her lip quivered and she thrust her head down for a moment, shutting her eyes tight.

Duncan raised a brow at her. He was so confused. Why was she so sad? Had something bad happened to him? If so, why couldn't he remember? A concussion?

Gwen lifted her head and slowly reopened her eyes, tears brimming in them. "I'm sorry…I'm just so…happy." she choked out, laughing lightly. "I don't know what I'd do if something bad had happened to you." she chuckled nervously.

Duncan frowned, furrowing his brow. "I'm…sorry." he said with as much strength as he could muster. "But…" he trailed off for a moment, rubbing the back of his head. "Who are you…?"

**Dun dun dun! lol. I love this chapter. I like Courtney and Gwen interactions quite a bit, so this was fun to write. And please, if either of them were ooc at all I really want to know. I would love to improve if possible. Plus, I think I'm ready to be critiqued on the third person point of view. I've been doing a lot more stories this way and am pretty confident that I'm not completely sucking. As such my feelings won't be hurt if you point out any mistakes. Plz review! :D**


	3. Hush Little Baby

**It's been a while, huh? Sorry, but as I said these stories being updated depends on my mood. Enjoy!**

It took a minute to register in her head, but once the reality of it sunk in her mouth fell agape, eyes as big as an ostrich egg. It didn't help that she was so fragile right now. Gwen could not believe what she was hearing. Could it be true? Was it possible to lose so much from a simple fall on your head? She thought not! Yet…her she was, face to face with that scenario. Duncan didn't know her. He said it easily, like she shouldn't know him either. Why…? How…? No! He hadn't forgotten! Not everything! There must be something of her or Courtney even that would awaken his subconscious. "D-Do…do you know your own name?" she squeezed out, biting her lip hard to hold back the tears.

Duncan looked at her with a sliver of guilt. But all in all he felt nothing as she struggled so hard to keep herself from losing it. It was like he'd never known this girl. So why should he feel anything at all? It was amazing he felt as much as he did in this moment. "I wouldn't." he paused, frowning. "But everyone was saying it. The doctors, nurses…you." he was hesitant in adding her to the list. He didn't want to cause her any undue torment.

Gwen whined lightly on accident, her breathing getting heavier. "O…Ok." she forced herself to say. "How about…" she trailed off, unable to think. That and she didn't want to know if he remembered Courtney. For what if he did? Then he would most certainly run off with her and leave poor Gwen all alone to deal with the loss of her only friend.

Luckily for Gwen, Courtney relieved her of her 'duty' by finishing her sentence for her. "Me!" she cried, clasping her small hands in front of her heart. Although for her knowing didn't mean quite as much as it did for Gwen. She merely wanted to know so that she could know whether or not he remembered all the things he'd done to her in the past as well as her to him. If not Courtney would be home free. She would be unable to blame him for anything or hold past mistakes over his head, but that was a minor thing. The big point was that she could be a whole new person with him, sweet, caring, or the same old same old. Whatever she felt like.

Duncan stared intently at the brunette before him, squinting as if it would somehow aid him in remembering. It did not. "…No…" he shook his head slowly back and forth.

Courtney was pleased by this, yet simultaneously perturbed. She crossed her arms over her chest. "What!" she cried. "How can you not remember me! I-We were…gah!" she broke off her sentence, throwing her hands into the arm as she turned away from him.

Gwen was instantly sent into a blaze of fury. Her eyes narrowed into slits, mouth curved into a menacing snarl as she verbally attacked Courtney for being so incredibly consumed with herself. "Courtney!" she screamed. "I swear to God you are the most selfish girl I've **ever** met! It's not his fault he can't remember you! And honestly I don't see why he'd want to!" she took a shot at the prep, motioning toward Duncan as she went on. "Can you not be at least a little bit concerned for him! He obviously needs us! And you **promised**!" she finished, hands and arms shaking from anger instead of sadness.

Courtney clenched her hands into fists, turning back to face the pair. "I don't have to do anything for him! Besides he **likes** me being this way! At least he used to." she grumbled the last sentence feebly, just realizing that being her normal self could have dire consequences. He was more then likely not the same person. Him having forgotten so much could've easily erased more then just his knowledge of them and others he had once known. She sighed irritably. "And I didn't promise anything." she lied, feeling lower then dirt for it even before it had passed her lips.

"What!" Gwen barked back, eyes wide in shock. "You-You lying little bitch!" she lashed out, more hurt then anything that Courtney was so willing to throw away a promise she'd made not even a hour beforehand. "I should never have believed you!"

Courtney averted her gaze. "You're right." she said shortly. "It was stupid of you." she made to step towards the door but stopped as something more came to her mind. "Then again. It shouldn't surprise anyone at this point. Especially after your stupidity caused him to lose his memory." she sneered, hoping to get her to lose herself. "You have Gweny over here to thank." she motioned toward the frozen girl on the stool, walking with quick strides over to Duncan. "I tried to stop her." she shrugged, bending down and kissing Duncan on the cheek. She didn't want to press her luck. "Bye." she waved, strutting over to and out of the door.

Gwen barely held in her bitter sadness while Courtney was present so once she was gone Gwen couldn't control it. She immediately broke down where she sat. The tears ran down her already stained face, creating an even worse picture for Duncan as she buried her face in her convulsing hands. Gwen knew Courtney could be vicious, it was one of the reasons she preferred not to associate herself with the prep, but she didn't realize she was capable of being this harsh. Not to her, not when she knew their hearts were aching equally. It was so unexpected that it was enough to push Gwen's barely there state of mind right on over the edge without any effort. She sobbed and whimpered as all these thoughts and more flew through her mind. Like, why wasn't Duncan doing anything too help her? Had he become that careless? She found it hard to believe. Deep down she knew he must be the same guy she felt so deeply for.

Duncan lowered his gaze in shame. He didn't like watching her cry. She seemed to be deeply hurt and disturbed by Courtney's words. But…he wasn't sure what to do. He no longer knew her. He didn't know what the key was to soothing her soul in such stressful times. And he sure as hell didn't want to make things worse then they already were. "Girl…" he whispered, hoping she hadn't heard. He was sure not remembering her name was definitely one of those things that wouldn't help. God, what was her name! Hadn't the brunette said it or at least a variation? Jenny…Ginny…G…something. He slammed his head back against his bed. It hurt, but he held his yelp in.

Gwen jumped in her skin from the sound. She was quick to scan him over, making sure to be a hundred percent sure he was ok before she fell deeper into her despair. She shook ten times worse then before, tears falling lightening fast as she once more pressed her face into her soggy hands.

"Gwen!" Duncan cried out loud by accident. He clamped his hands over his mouth automatically, knowing she would grow more frantic then previously if she thought he was hurting.

"What?" she cried in alarm.

"I…I just remembered what that girl said." he paused, sighing miserably. "I remembered your name." he shrugged lightly.

"Yeah…you did." her lip quivered pitifully and she sucked in a deep breath. She was trying her hardest to not fall into to many pieces. It just wasn't working all that well so far.

Duncan started twiddling his thumbs nervously. "Gwen…" he muttered, not waiting for a response. "Don't cry…" he said in the same hushed tone. Despite the concern his words were meant to show he was afraid the girl before him wouldn't take it as such. He figured she would instinctively think that he was merely doing as any stranger would, not that he was a close person like he used to be who only wanted what was best for her.

She froze in that moment, looking back at him with a coldness. "Don't…cry?" she growled, laughing coldly afterwards. "Don't fucking cry!" she spat, slamming a fist down against the table beside his bed. "How can you tell me not to! My best friend suddenly doesn't remember me, but 'oh it's ok nothing's wrong.'" she smiled falsely as she pretended to talk like someone else, batting her eyes and clasping her hands at her chest for extra effect. She was losing the little bit of her sanity still intact. "Nothing worth crying over!" she screamed at the top of her lungs moments after her creepy act of happiness.

Duncan drew back as she yelled in his face, but he didn't stop her. He knew that although he didn't like being treated this way that she needed it. She needed to cry and yell to get through this. He may have forgotten a lot, but he knew that much. He realized pain was an awful emotion that shouldn't be ignored or suppressed. And since he could do nothing for her he let her be.

There were no words in her next scream. It was a full-fledged scream of terror. As she howled she gripped her fists so tightly that her nails were breaking her skin. It added physical pain to emotional, definitely not what she needed. "I hate it! Why! Why does it always happen to me!" choked sobs worked their way out of her throat, making it difficult for her to continue ranting. Never-the-less she managed to keep it up. "Ever since that stupid accident two years ago **everything** has sucked! Everything!" she wailed, lashing out and hitting the closest thing to her, Duncan's arm.

He had half expected as much, but for some reason was unable to move his arm. So he received her punch full force. "Shit!" he yelped, cringing from the pain it sent through him. It wouldn't have hurt like it did if he hadn't recently fallen from a tree, but things being as they were it hurt very much.

"Oh my God!" she yanked her hand back and covered her mouth with the other. "I-I…I'm sorry." she moaned. "I-I didn't…I mean…" she stumbled over her words, torn into so many shreds it was near impossible to think straight at this point.

"It's fine." Duncan waved his hand on the opposite side some, the equivalent of a shrug. "Really." he said with a nod.

"No…no it isn't!" she cried. "She was right. I am hurting you!" such a revelation stunned her. She never thought she'd ever be able to even think of hurting Duncan yet here she was, making him cringe in pain. She didn't think she deserved to be here. She felt she should have walked out instead of Courtney. Courtney might have yelled a bit, but at least she wouldn't be this little helpless creature before him. She would be able to take care of herself and thus take care of him as well. "I'm awful."

"Gwen." he murmured, reaching a hand out toward her.

No!" she slapped it away. "Don't try to make me feel better! Don't lie to me! It won't work! I-I'll know it's all just a bunch of bullshit!"

He sighed irritably. He didn't want t get mad at her but this pity act was seriously getting on his last nerve. If she was always this fragile he didn't understand how he tolerated it. Had they really been best friends?

"I should be the one in that bed! Not you! I should have my memories erased! I-!"

He couldn't take it. "Gwen!" he snapped. She immediately ceased her ranting, looking at him with wide tear filled eyes. "It's ok." a pause. "Judging by the way you're acting right now I think it's safe to say you didn't try to hurt me." she would have burst into another string of nonsense, but he was quick to place a finger to her parted lips, signaling her to shut up. "Listen to me." he sounded so serious. "You didn't do anything. If I was looking to blame someone it would be that other girl, not you. No one who cries this much over a person could possibly want to harm them."

"B-But…" she blubbered. "But…I-I…"

He shook his head. "You didn't mean it. You're just upset. That's all." his voice was becoming softer each word he spoke, sending a stream of sweetness into the tainted air.

"I…di-didn't…" she half repeated what he told her, staring deep into his teal eyes before she fell down, defeated. She thrust her head down on the side of his bed, her head touching the side of his leg. Her shivers returned to her body then, tears flowing freely as well. "God, I'm just-just so…so s-sorry…" she blabbered on and on. "If I had stopped you!" she attempted to reason with herself, finding a way that it would be all on her. Only his touch made her unsure.

"Shh…" he breathed softly. "It's alright. You did nothing." instead of merely touching her he thought to run his fingers through her blue black hair. It felt so sleek as did it send shivers through him. Though the feeling wasn't enough to get him to stop. He wanted to help as much as possible. "You tried your hardest. You shouldn't blame yourself." He really had no idea if she'd tried. He was merely guessing. Anything to make her cease her crying and let him clear his conscience of the pain her tears were somehow able to cause.

"S-Sorry…" was all she could spit out now. The way he ran his fingers through her hair was the best feeling to her. It brought her the utmost comfort, for even if he'd forgotten her and the way to ease her suffering his fingers hadn't. He touched her exactly as he had before, with extreme care and feeling. She smiled wanly, happy at least one thing remained from his past self.

"Shh…" he repeated. "It'll be fine." a pause. "Just breathe." Even with his supposed memory loss he still retained his knack for persuasion. He wondered what else he could do and what he might never realize he had lost. He frowned lightly, not liking the idea of losing himself to this traumatic event. But he didn't let his upset transfer into his actions. He knew better…somehow. It was then, as his unease continued to mount that he launched into a lullaby. It was one of his favorites. He didn't know why he suddenly remembered this fact, maybe he remembered more then he or anyone else thought. The song was 'Hush Little Baby.' He hummed it ever so softly, not missing a note.

The song did its job for them both. As the song met Gwen's ears her breathing gradually slowed until it reached the regular level, the tears ruining her perfect face ceased falling, and her shakes grew less frequent until she was finally lulled into a peaceful sleep. For Duncan it eased his mind of all the guilt her panic had created, it made the headache disappear, and best of all it reminded him of something. He was a couple of years younger. He was standing outside of school waiting for something. As he paced back and forth with obvious irritation he decided to look up. What he saw wasn't unimaginably beautiful or breathtaking nor was it even pretty. But it was Gwen. She was standing by the fountain, eyes lowered to the ground, books clutched at her chest. She was so lonely. No one was next to her or even within ten feet of her. It was the first time he'd laid eyes on her. And his feelings toward her now were about the same now if not less in that moment. He made a disgusted face at the sight of her, turning away when the sound of the song drifted toward him. A girl was humming it, bobbing her head all the while. "Pretty, huh?" she said sweetly. "It can be our little song. Don't ya think baby?" she cooed, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as she laughed.

The memory faded away after that. There was nothing, no matter how hard he tried to grasp at. He sighed. He wanted to know why he'd remembered something as trivial as that. He was sure if he asked Gwen about it she wouldn't recall that moment ever happening. So why? Why did his mind bring it back to the surface? He shrugged. He could only guess he was thinking back to the song, not the girl. Yet…she seemed to be the focus. The light in the memory had beamed down all around her and no where else. She was made to look like an angel because of this, yet he still was repulsed. Why…? Why was he so prominent in his mind…? He kept going over this and every tiny detail of his flashback to figure it out for hours until he eventually started drifting. He could barely keep his eyes opened or his mind alert. Everything was slipping. And he was afraid. He didn't want to fall back into darkness. Darkness could bring death. He didn't want that. He struggled against it for thirty minutes more, but his efforts were fruitless. He fell deep into a sleep that was to be filled with nightmares. Only his screams would not be heard. No one was there to listen. He was trapped.

Two thirty rolled around faster for them then Gwen would have liked, but far to slowly for Duncan. It was then, in the am, that his screams broke through the veil that was his dreams. He shot up from his bed, yelling, "No! Don't leave!" his breathing was elevated to great degrees and his eyes portrayed a look of panic. He was in a frenzy. He was even reaching out as far as his arms would allow.

Once Duncan rose, Gwen was up in an instant. She yelped as she shot up into her previous sitting position. "What! What's wrong!" she cried wide eyed, praying nothing more had happened to him during the night. She could barely handle what was on her plate at the moment so there was no way in hell she could take an ounce more.

Duncan struggled to breathe regularly, answering between breaths. "Just…a bad dream." he heaved, rubbing his head with one hand and eyes with the other.

Gwen sighed deep with relief. "Thank God." she sunk back into a slouched position in her chair, closing her eyes tight to relax herself.

Duncan frowned lightly at her. She was so confusing. She had known for a full day now that he did not know her at all, yet here she remained as concerned as ever. Why? Just because she cared so much for him, despite the circumstances? Or was it her own self loathing that trapped her here? She was so guilt ridden that even if deep down she wanted to leave, she couldn't. He was repulsed by the notion, but couldn't help but consider it. For to him being so hopelessly devoted to someone was the equivalent of being thoroughly depressed and or meaningless to the rest of the world. It just wasn't in human nature to care for no reason. And in a way he was right.

She slowly reopened her eyes so that she was looking at him straight on. She froze. She was captivated by him even now. Knowing of what his brain had done to him made no difference. He was just as eye-catching and breathtaking as he'd been a year ago. If only she had told him so. "Hey…" she murmured. "You probably don't know but…today's the tour of the school." she looked away from his perfect face instantly after, not wanting to see what he thought.

Duncan swallowed hard. "Really…?" he sounded more interested then Gwen would have thought he'd been. But she didn't know why. It was because of his vision. He'd seen the school, or at least what he thought was the school. He wanted to go and confirm this and perhaps find more of his memories that were locked deep within him. He didn't exactly want to go with her, but he'd never say that. So with slight annoyance he spoke, "I wanna go…with you." he squeezed the last part out with difficulty. He was no longer able to lie. He'd have to practice a hell of a lot too.

Gwen perked. "Oh? Really?" she was hopeful, eyes lighting. She wished so badly for him to do things with her that she was hopelessly blind to all the signs that he wanted the exact opposite. "Well…" she glanced to a clock on the wall. "It's kinda early." she tugged at her sleeve, not wanting to upset him.

Duncan rolled his eyes. "So what?" he scoffed, hopping from the bed in a flash. "I doubt they'll mind a couple of kids going through."

Gwen stood swiftly. "Oh! Are you sure you should be standing so quick like that?" her tone was dripping with boundless concern as she rushed over and laid her hand on his shoulder. "And I don't know…" she trailed off. "The school is being on guard now…" she still found herself unable to finish her sentence. …_After the shooting. _This was what she had meant to say. Only she didn't want to bring up a topic that he would be confused about and want answers to…answers he wouldn't like.

Duncan looked down at her hand, her fingers cold even through his shirt. Despite her deep investment in his wellbeing he still was disgruntled by the contact. He was in no way ready to let this girl in. So he did what any stranger would have and shook her hand from him. "I'm fine mom." he grumbled half playfully, walking forward toward the door a moment after. He tilted his head back from the door as he moved to open it. "Coming?" he really hoped not, but as of what he'd learned of her in this short period she was unrealistically loyal. So he knew her reaction before it happened.

She nodded firmly, bounding over to his side to follow him out the door. She fell into stride beside him moments after, never looking away from him while he barely looked at her. As they went no one paid any mind to the two teens, to tired to care even as they exited the building without permission. Only hours later would anything come of this mistake. And hours can be so very short, especially for someone who has all the world to learn about and another who has limitless time to give.

**What do you all think? I think it's kinda short and too cry filled to be good. Idk...looking back on it...idk. But if you like it that'd be awesome! :D Plz review!**


	4. The Great Escape

**This took a while, I know, but I have an actual reason this time! lol My piece of crap computer deleted a huge chunk of it and I had to redo it. So it feels off to me, even if it doesn't to you. I feel like there are parts that were better the first time and some other parts that turned out better this time. So...yeah. Enjoy! :)**

They were halfway across the parking lot when Gwen realized something. She hadn't thought about it before because it was a natural thing most of the time, but now it hit her. "Oh God!" she slapped her forehead.

Duncan looked at her with a half interested expression, liking the sound of her voice in that moment. "What?" he asked dumbly, frowning lightly.

"How the hell are we supposed to get there?" she cried, throwing her arms up into the air. "I mean…we could walk. But…that would take forever…or maybe-" she perked then, stopping mid-sentence as she noticed him trailing off to the side away from her. "Hey!" she called after him. "Where are you going?"

He glanced back at her a moment, rolling his eyes at her denseness as he continued to drift away from her. He scanned over each and every car he saw until his eyes landed on the perfect one. It was a red corvette with orange flames running down both sides. He smirked deviously, moving close enough to run his hands over the smooth surface. It looked to be old, but it was so incredibly cool it didn't matter. A perfect candidate to be hotwired. He still needed to get in the car though. He searched around, dropping down to the ground to look for rocks.

Gwen blinked a couple of times as she watched Duncan drop down to his knees. She wasn't really worried about him at this point. She figured he was merely looking for something, what that something was beyond her. "Duncan!" she cried with a hint of amusement as she trotted over to him. "What are you doing?"

Duncan found a good sized rock and smiled, picking himself back up from the ground to turn toward Gwen. "What's it look like?" he teased, chugging the rock at the passenger window of the car. It shattered instantly, shards falling into the seat and onto the ground around the window.

"Oh my God!" she covered her mouth with both hands, pressing hard so as not to laugh. "Duncan!" she whined unconvincingly. "You can't do that!"

He frowned. "Why not? We need to get out of here and we don't have a car. This guy, whoever owns it, is loaning us his car for the time being."

Gwen burst out laughing. "No. It doesn't-I mean…you could be arrested."

Duncan grinned widely. "So?" he shrugged. "I'm still technically a minor. Besides, I've been to juvie plenty of times already." He stuck his hand through the hole in the window and unlocked the door.

Gwen's eyes widened. "You remember!" she cried.

Duncan coked his head to the side. "Yeah…I may not remember some things but I still know a bit." he paused. "Look, can we talk about this later?" he asked, pulling the door open and carefully crawling across the seat to hit the unlock all button. Of course Duncan being Duncan he wasn't careful enough. On his way back he slid his arm across the edge of a piece of the glass, sucking in a sharp breath.

Gwen nodded to his question, too absorbed in her thoughts for once to notice anything had happened. She was thinking hard on his memory issues. It was obviously selective, in a sense. He couldn't remember at least two years back, that much was for sure especially since Courtney came into his life a year ago and Gwen two years back. She sighed, running a hand through her yucky hair. How was she supposed to deal with this? She loved him dearly, her best friend. But he saw her as nothing more then a stranger.

Duncan jerked back out of the car, gripping his arm tenderly as blood dripped from it. It stung like hell, like when he was six. He had been running around with a bunch of boys who were bigger then he was. They weren't too happy with him being included so they were seriously trying to push him down as an excuse to get him out of their game. He was much faster then the lot of them though so it was proving difficult for them to accomplish their goal. "Can't catch me!" he'd screamed over his shoulder, not paying attention to where he was going. It was this minor act of stupidity that had him running face first into a large tree. He'd stumbled back and, attempting to catch himself, skinned his arm on the ground.

Skin was pulled away in chunks on his arm and he basically screamed bloody murder, the group of bigger boys circling around him with horrified expressions. Only one, his cousin, ran to get Duncan's mother. And soon after Duncan fainted from staring at the blood too long. He didn't have to go to the hospital or anything, but he made sure to stay away from those boys for a good long time. That was for sure.

Duncan shuddered at the memory, bringing his hand away from the small wound to see that his hand was now covered in red liquid. Even now he wasn't the biggest fan of blood, especially his own, but it wasn't bad enough to make him faint. He merely felt light headed as he moved to tear a piece of his pants off to wrap around the cut. He'd fix it later when Gwen wasn't around to have a spaz attack.

Gwen was still standing off to the side, paying little mind to him for the second time. Now she was wondering what would happen if they were to get pulled over. Neither of them had their license, even though they were of age, and would be in a hell of a lot of trouble as such. She supposed she could use the 'he lost him memory' card, but honestly it would do little good. They'd say that Gwen was perfectly fine and could have stopped him from driving. Best case scenario she'd be dragged off and he'd get off scott free. Worst, they'd both be screwed. "Duncan…" she started, looking to the passenger side to see he had disappeared. Her eyes grew wide as she spun around. "Duncan!"

Duncan stood up from where he'd been crouched over on the drivers side. "What?" he grumbled uninterestedly. "I'm trying to work here."

She half smiled. "Sorry…but we really can't do this." she moved her foot in circles on the pavement. It was a bad nervous habit.

He rolled his eyes, snorting and ducking back down to sift through the crap in this guys car. He had gloves, great, and some papers, paper clips, candy, and other useless junk. He sighed. There was nothing to start this hunk of junk. He needed a screwdriver of some sort.

Gwen frowned, lowering herself down to his level and stuck her head in the passenger side. "We can still walk." she was half begging for him to consider it.

Duncan shook his head as he crawled into the seat and craned his head to look in the backseat on the off chance that there might be something left behind there. "Do you wanna come or not?" it was a rhetorical question really. He knew, no matter how much it went against her code or whatever, that she would without a doubt do anything to tag along. He smirked. "Then clean off the passenger seat so you have a place to sit." he half ordered, enjoying the power.

She hesitated only a fraction of a second before she hopped to it. She reached over for one of the gloves to push the glass without having to worry about cutting herself. Blood was cool and all, not just fake blood, but only when it was someone else's. She wasn't a fan of her own. She saw that her plan wasn't to smart when one of the pieces of glass sliced open a spot on the glove. "Opps…" she whispered, looking over to Duncan who was now half way in the back, his bottom half only being used for balance. She threw the glove back to its spot with haste then, grabbing an ice scrapper in the windshield instead. With this her job was made easy. She got all of the glass in a neat pile, moving to the side to be out of range as she hit the pile as hard as she could to get it out of her seat. It shattered instantly, a huge smile spreading across her face.

As she was doing her chore Duncan was becoming lost in the back seat. He searched the seats, the sides where something could have fallen, and the floors. All there was to be found were sunglasses discarded due to cracks, toys older then time itself, a gameboy game, Ziploc bags with crackers, and mountains of dust everywhere. It was plain to him that no one had ridden in the back in years, maybe not even for as many as ten years. Ten years. He sighed in a mixture of irritation and reminiscence. What it would mean if he could be but a child, protected by his mother and father like a precious jewel. More so he wished he could remember it all. Whatever had happened to him had jolted his brain and pushed many memories away from his grasp.

"Done!" Gwen chirped, doing a fist pump and grinning widely.

Duncan was slightly startled by her outburst and jumped so that, if he hadn't been down so low, he'd have surely hit his head on the ceiling. He even thought of turning around and scolding her until his eyes came to land on her face. She hadn't been this happy, truly delighted. Duncan wanted to say this fact pleased him to no end like he knew she'd say of him in a similar situation, but he could not. All he could say was that he was unable of crushing her spirit by calling her down. "Great." he said instead smiling a half smile before turning back around and digging beneath the seat of the front ones. It felt so disgruntling, making him cringe and groan softly. But it was well worth it. He found precisely what he was looking for. It was a flat headed screwdriver. He wondered for a moment if the owner of this car or their now grown kids had used it to do as he was about to do. "Yes!" he cried after clearing the thought from his head. "Hell yes!"

Gwen jolted up and hit her head on the roof of the car, groaning lightly as she tenderly rubbed her head. "What is it?" she murmured, straining to hide her discomfort.

Duncan pulled himself back up to the front, a huge grin that would have matched Gwen's plastered on his face. "This is perfect." he rolled it around in circles in his hand as he spoke. "Perfect." he muttered again, looking up at Gwen afterward to see she no longer looked thrilled. "What?" he said out of instinct, eyes widening of their own accord. He even found that a part of him wanted to reach out and touch the spot which she was holding with such care. He quickly pushed the urge away.

Gwen shrugged, forcing a smile to convince him all was well. "Nothing." a pause. "Just hit my head. It doesn't matter." she looked down at the object in his hand. "So…you found what you were looking for?" she perked, truly interested in his findings.

Duncan brightened again, forgetting about her injury in a moments time. "A screwdriver!" he exclaimed, moving his hand closer to her face so she might get a better look at it. "And it's a flat head."

"I know what it is." she chuckled lightly. "Remember?" she reminded him. "I **was** your best friend. If I didn't know that stuff then I'd never have made it farther than school acquaintance." she nudged him gently in the arm.

Duncan grit his teeth as she did so, her having hit him in the spot that was cut. But other then that there were no outward signs that he was hurting. This being the case, as he wanted, Gwen didn't notice. "Right." he muttered to himself in a half response to her cheerful reminder. Not that he really wanted to be told. He rather preferred that he not know of the details of their relationship. Knowing them but not feeling the emotion that normally would go with them would only hurt him more, him and her both. Besides, he was pretty sure she was what most classified as a friend with benefits. Or maybe it was just easier to believe this.

She was quick to hop into the passenger seat then, eyeing Duncan expectantly. "Well?" she prodded. "You gonna do this or what?" she pulled her door shut.

He frowned, narrowing his eyes at her in suspicion. "What happened to the girl who was scared stiff of just breaking into the car?"

She laughed nervously, rubbing her arm. "I dunno. I guess I see that you aren't about to stop this and as your friend I'm obligated to follow you." with her next words her tone turned serious. "I wouldn't want you to get killed being stupid."

Duncan's frown deepened. There she went again, talking about hoe devoted she was willing to be. Why wouldn't she cut it out? It was really pissing him off. "Whatever." he growled, flipping the screwdriver through his fingers before he jabbed it into the ignition. It'd be nice if he had a hammer to get the screwdriver in better, but that wasn't about to happen so he did as best he could. He hit it with his hand instead before deciding it wasn't getting in any farther and tentatively turned it.

Gwen felt his annoyance vibrating from him to her and she lowered her gaze. She hadn't meant to make him mad with her concern, but it was hard for her not to display her deep affection towards him. She was so used to being able to say the same thing and getting a laugh or a playful hit on the arm that it was kind of jarring. She sighed softly, looking up out of the windshield. It was a bright day. One wouldn't think, looking up at this sky, that anything could be wrong in the world at this moment. All they would see was the promise of a new day and a lack of rain for yet another day this week. But that was not so for Gwen. She saw what was really meant to be seen. She saw the truth, and the truth was a bitter substance that no one wanted to admit existed. She saw that nothing was ever perfect, that each and every day someone suffered from something like a disease, physical injury, or even death. Worst of all she saw that all this effected not only the afflicted, but all those who loved them. They hurt just as much if not more then the victim. One could even say that the onlookers were the true victims. That's how she felt of herself at least.

The engine revved to life, much to the boys surprise and his smile returned.

Gwen perked. "How did you do that?"

Duncan knew that she was referring to the fact he didn't remember everything and snorted. "I've been doing this since I was like twelve." he chuckled. "So trust me when I say I know what I'm doing."

"So you remember being twelve…" she whispered, obviously in pain over this despite the fact she should be thrilled at him at least remembering this much. She just couldn't help but wish he remembered a little further, at least to when he met her.

He recognized what was bothering her and scrambled to change the subject. "Ready to drive or what?" he said smugly, smirking deviously as he situated himself properly in the drivers seat and took a grip on the steering wheel.

Gwen's eyes widened as she saw that flicker in his teal eyes. She'd seen it enough to know what it signified. He was about to do something incredibly stupid which would no doubt risk both their lives. "Duncan." she said like a mother would when warning their child to watch their step.

Duncan's smirk stretched further across his face at seeing the fear return to her pale face. "What's wrong?" he teased, reaching out and pulling his door shut.

Gwen swallowed hard. "Um…" she couldn't exactly explain what she'd seen in him. He wouldn't like her going on about who he used to be for one thing nor would he appreciate her resistance. "Are you sure you know how to drive?" she said instead. "I mean, I know you've been doing it for a year or so without your license, but…" she trailed off, not knowing how to end it.

Duncan snorted, not letting her mention of the past he was incapable of reaching out for and grabbing on to in his own mind ruin his excitement. If he remembered he remembered how thrilling it was when he got behind the wheel. In all honestly he could even recall Gwen's voice scolding him on a daily basis for his bad driving habits. Thinking of her acting as such made him snicker.

"What!" she cried, not liking that laugh. It combined with all other things he'd done made her worry ten times more.

"You worry to much." he answered simply, tightening his grip on the wheel. "I told you. I've been hotwiring cars since I was twelve. Why would I do that if I wasn't going to drive them?" he poked fun.

She rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't put it past you to be an idiot like that." she grinned. "Just look at yourself now." she pointed out. "You're **stealing**."

"Are you sure you're my best friend. Cause you sure don't seem to be remembering much of things I've done."

Gwen grimaced. "I…I've only known you for a while…" she grumbled, lowering her gaze again.

Duncan didn't like the way he had upset her so, but made no move to console her. Instead he stepped down hard on the gas pedal. They shot backwards in the blink of an eye, throwing the both of them forward instantly.

Gwen was caught off guard by the jolt and nearly slammed her head into the dashboard. She was lucky that she had good enough reflexes to catch herself. "What was that!" she screamed, eyes wide and breathing a notch above normal.

Duncan was grinning in a way similar to the devil himself, a snicker hiding behind his lips. "I wanted to go." he said in a way that showed he was stifling a laugh. "So I did." he shrugged, foot lingering an inch above the gas. He was ready to get the hell out of here. He knew that if they lingered here to much longer then some personnel would come looking for them and drag him back to the hospital and bust Gwen for assisting in stealing a car.

Gwen crossed her arms over her chest. "Without even warning me!" she cried in a half whining voice. "I could have had my forehead split open!"

Duncan snickered. "Well…at least we'd be next to the hospital." he shrugged, about ready to burst out laughing.

Many things might have changed about him, but she saw one big part of him that had without a doubt remained, his quick-witted humor. She snorted. "Ha-ha. Yeah. And if that had happened I would have beaten you to death." she was half kidding, but only half. If he were to hurt her she would have no problem with doing the same right back. She cringed. Only she had already hurt him. Him hurting her would be payback. She had no right.

"Yeah, right. If you say so Pinocchio."

"At least let me put on my seat belt." she said, pulling the belt over her chest and snapped it in place with a heavy sigh. "You should do the same." Before the words were completely out of her mouth she was thrown forward.

The only thing Duncan had listened for was the click of her belt before he slammed his foot back down on the gas with immense force. With that they were speeding forward toward the car parked front of them.

"Ahh!" Gwen screamed in a high pitch. "Duncan! Car! Car!" her eyes were wide already after only a second of starting.

Duncan knew exactly how long he had before he would make impact and waited the amount out until there was but a split seconds chance to avoid the crash and jerked the wheel hard right, gritting his teeth hard.

Gwen, regardless of her restraint, was thrown to the left just as hard as before, hitting her head on the side of Duncan's headrest. She let out an involuntary moan, hurrying to straighten herself before they made another sharp turn. "Duncan!" she cried. "You're crazy!"

Duncan chortled. "Nah." he disagreed with a shake of his head. "I just **love **a good rush!" the laugh that followed sent chills down Gwen's spine and had her scrambling to brace herself.

Gwen knew what Duncan said was no lie. Ever since she'd known him he'd insisted on doing all sorts of crazy stunts. At first she thought he did so to fit in with his other psycho peers and played upon this to try and convince him to stop. It didn't take long for her to see this was not the case. He did it because he wanted to. And since they were friends she quickly developed his habit. She followed him into dangerous situations all the time. It made her feel unbelievably proud, especially when he told others that she was the only girl he trusted enough to bring along. It was the highest award she could possibly receive. Anything from him was number one in her book. Still as familiar as she was with his varying ways of getting rushes she had never quite gotten used to this method. Something about being amongst other idiots made it as bad as a death sentence. This was why she found herself gripping tight onto the armrest to her left and the pocket on the side of the door on her right.

Duncan went on at a constant speed of sixty miles an hour all the while, having slowed down only slightly from his speed at the start. He never imagined slowing down any further, so it was a good thing he didn't have to as they sped on toward the school. "How ya doing?" he asked without genuine concern, taking his eyes off the road as he always liked to do. Only now it wasn't to take in her beauty, it was to see her petrified expression.

"Duncan!" she snapped in return, raising her right hand to point urgently ahead of them. "Light! Slow down!" she was practically jumping up and down in her seat as she tried desperately to get him to take his eyes from her and see that they were coming up on a four way intersection. This was the most dangerous place in town, only a few miles from the school.

Duncan jumped a bit, swirling his head about to take in the scene he was coming up on. The light was still green, but he knew what she was spazzing over. She saw that the light would change before they got there and knew he wouldn't think about letting it stop him. And she was right. The light flickered from the top green spot to the middle where it was yellow, but instead of heeding her warning he did the exact opposite. He pressed his foot down harder on the peddle, bringing their speed up to seventy easy.

She wanted so much to cover her face with her hands as their car raced forward so that she wouldn't see the horrific scene she was being forced to enter. They were going to crash. She knew it. And it didn't help that the vehicle opposing them was the largest one possible. It was a semi truck and it was moments away from getting the green light and going.

And then the light on their side changed to red, just as they passed beneath it. "DUNCAN!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. But it was to late. There was no more time left to stop at the speed he was going, and no room to reverse, and they both knew it. They were screwed.

**So, what do you all think? I left you on a cliffhanger. Tehe. You'll find I like to do that quite a bit. :) And remember, constructive criticism is always appreciated, especially with the pov. I have a tendency to go from one to the other on accident. ^^'' Review please! :D**


	5. Laugh A Little

**Wow, I haven't even looked at this story in months. But today I just said 'I'm going to do this' and I did it. I worked all day on this chapter and here it is. I hope you enjoy!**

What happened next could only be explained as a miracle.

Instead of being their downfall, Duncan's idiotic move of speeding up was their saving grace. Because of the boost of speed their car was able to soar through, seemingly grazing the corner of the semi as Duncan turned hard, unscathed.

Duncan slammed on the breaks as he rounded the corner in to the emergency lane, throwing them both forward.

Gwen hadn't realized it, but she had been holding her breath the whole time and upon stopping finally let it out. She gasped for air and clutched her stomach, not quite sure if they were even still alive.

Duncan, on the other hand, was better than ever. "Oh yeah!" he screamed, gripping the steering wheel hard as he lifted his head up and howled. "**That** was awesome!"

At the sound of Duncan's voice Gwen sort of snapped out of it, looking up at him in disbelief. "What. The hell!" she barked, eyes wide in fear. "What was that?" she cried.

Duncan looked over at her, a wide grin still plastered on his face. "Fun!" He answered simply, looking about ready to laugh again. "And your face…" he pointed a finger at her. "HA!"

Gwen scowled lightly at him. "You were about to kill us. How else should I look?"

Duncan ceased laughing, smile slipping slightly. "I dunno. Excited!" he decided. "I mean, we just squeaked through what would have been an awful crash!" he exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air.

Gwen tried not to, she really did, but despite herself she felt a smile twitching at the corners of her mouth.

Duncan raised a brow at her, expecting to be reprimanded once more.

"No." she murmured to herself, but it was too hard to ignore the part of her that got the biggest thrills out of the same things as Duncan. "I know!" she cried, bursting out laughing. "We-We should have been **slammed**, but we weren't!"

Duncan was surprised by this change in attitude of her, but he didn't feel like asking if she'd hit her head considering that's exactly what had happened to him. So he simply went with it. "See?"

"I haven't felt this way in forever!" she went on, holding her head as the laughter turned hysterical.

Duncan had mostly stopped laughing, more intrigued by Gwen's laugh than the amusement of the situation. He hadn't known it from how she always seemed so sad and careful, but her laugh was kind of cute.

Duncan continued to watch her, brow furrowed, as he thought. But if he had never heard it, why did it feel and sound so very familiar? And then something clicked in his head and he remembered.

He wasn't at all sure of when this moment occurred, but this only made him feel all the more strongly about it being real.

_It was late at night, pitch black, as he leaned back against a car. A stolen one he figured. He was smoking too and lazily threw the cigarette on the ground shortly after._

_It was then that the car door on the opposite side opened, a figure stumbling out and hopping around the front as they struggled with something._

"_Having trouble are we?" Duncan chuckled, tilting his head to the side to see._

_As they leaned against the hood for support their face shone clear in the faint light of the moon. It was Gwen. "You have to ask?"_

_Duncan smiled. "No. It's just fun." He said with a shrug._

_Gwen sighed irritably. "I see." She snorted. "So is the point of making me wear this stupid dress and high heels to steal 'just fun' too?" she asked, using her fingers as quotation marks_

_Duncan laughed. "Nah." He left his place against the car to walk over to her and grab her leg. "It jus makes you look sexy." He said in nonchalance, as if it were nothing._

_Gwen barely reacted. "I should have known." She giggled lightly._

_Now that Duncan had her foot in the air he grabbed her half on heel and messed with it until it was on right. "There." he nodded. "Happy now?"_

_She snorted. "I don't need this fancy crap to be happy." She said, waving her hand about._

"_Really?" Duncan said in amusement, dropping her leg and crossing his arms over his chest._

"_Duh." She stuck her tongue out to make the face of a dummy._

_Duncan chuckled._

_Gwen's face went back to normal, smile never faltering. "I'm happy just being her with you." She conceded, looking contentedly up at him._

_Duncan smiled warmly down at her. "I know." He stepped closer wrapping his arms around her tiny waist in affection._

_Gwen hugged him back, eyes closed as she savored one of the few moments she had with him without Courtney being there too._

_Duncan enjoyed it almost as much as she did, going as far as to think he never wanted it to end._

"_So are we gonna do this or what?" Gwen exclaimed, lifting her head off his chest to look almost sinisterly at him, a smirk on her lips._

_Duncan's daze was broken and he looked back down at her with a similar expression as she herself had. "Hell yeah!" he agreed, removing himself from her to lift a hand in the air for a high five._

_Gwen gladly gave it to him, smirk spreading farther. "Then let's go have some fun."_

And then it was over.

The image in his mind faded from his reach and he was right back where he had been all along, so lost and confused about who he was.

Gwen was just now calming, still smiling brightly at Duncan. It was like she hadn't even noticed he had been ignoring her this whole time when he most definitely had been.

Even now he was preoccupied with something else, or at least it wasn't the present her. He was busy pondering why she seemed so comfortable with him as he did her. It didn't make sense to him. They weren't an item.

That Courtney girl was supposedly his girlfriend.

Yet in this memory the way they'd looked at each other seemed so deep. Without the prior information he would easily believe that they were the ones who had been together. Only it wasn't so, and he had to wonder why.

"Duncan?" Gwen said, eyeing him strangely.

He perked. "What?" it almost sounded like he was snapping at her.

"Are we gonna go?" she asked sweetly.

Duncan started slightly. "Huh?" he wanted to make sure this had been real and not just a piece from his screwed up mind.

"We were going to the school. Remember?" she still wore her smile, unworried for once.

Duncan nodded. "Of course!" he pressed done on the gas, careful not to go to fast this time. It was odd, but he had a feeling in the back of his mind that it was because Gwen was with him.

The rest of the short ride was spent with Gwen watching Duncan and Duncan peeking over at her every so often to notice. No words were spoken until they pulled in to the empty parking lot.

"Go over there!" Gwen pointed to the back of the school.

Duncan scrunched up his face, going even slower so as not to pass up the bus lane in case he could get her to see it was easier. "Why?"

Gwen sighed, rolling her eyes. "There are cameras on watching the front entrance all the time, even when no one is there." She made it sound obvious. "We can't be seen picking the lock there."

Duncan smirked. "Oh. Yeah, makes sense." He admitted, chuckling lightly, speeding back up.

Gwen slung her door open before he'd fully parked, hoping out in a fashion that made Duncan think she'd done it many times before. He even figured he'd been the one to teach her.

"So, what now?" he asked, getting out of his side and walking around the front to meet her.

She put her hands over her mouth to keep from laughing at him. "Please tell me you're kidding." She teased.

Duncan raised a brow. "What? Do I really just have to pick a lock?" he said in disbelief.

Gwen was brimming with life. "Yes, genius." She chuckled, shaking her head back and forth.

"I thought you said there was high security or something." He recalled, scanning the area for signs of life which he might have missed.

Gwen's smile slipped a tiny bit, but not enough to be noticed by human eyes. "They'll be here around five." She said as if it were normal for a school. "So we have a couple of hours."

Duncan was rather impressed by her knowledge. It certainly would be handy getting reacquainted with his surroundings because, for some reason, he was having trouble remembering the setup of the school. "Good to know."

Gwen's face lit up. She was glad she was at least a little useful in this scenario.

"Now come on." He grabbed on to her hand without thinking, finding it an almost natural action.

Gwen's eyes shot down to her hand, surprised by the contact. He was extremely warm as well as gentle. For him to have forgotten every detail about her this was amazing in and of itself.

He released her a moment after reaching the door, looking carefully at it. "Hmm…" he dug in his pockets for something to use, finding nothing. "Got anything?"

"Oh!" Gwen grabbed from her pocket not an item to pick the lock but a ring of keys. "I forgot about these." She laughed. "You won't have to pick it after all."

Duncan was interested in how she got those. "Why do you have keys to the school?" he was kind of suspicious.

"I didn't get them." She reassured. "You did."

"Me?" he could scarcely believe it.

"Uh-huh." She nodded. "You're in detention so much one day you decided it would be fun to sneak out and take the keys for fun." She laughed lightly at the memory. "They were the janitor's."

Duncan smiled broadly. "Sounds like it would be fun." He scratched his chin, wondering how he managed to pull it off.

"You tried to get two sets, but got caught with the second." She went on. "And since you knew that when they realized they were still missing a set they'd go to you first, you gave them to me. You said to keep them safe for a while…" she sighed softly.

Duncan listened intently.

"But you never asked for them back." She picked the correct key from the ring and inserted it. "So I figured you'd either forgotten or let me keep them as your way of giving a gift."

Gwen twisted the key, a click issuing shortly after. "But I never really knew which." There was a twinge of bitterness in her tone as she pulled the door open and took back the key.

Duncan sensed the bitterness and immediately connected it with the fact that she probably felt she'd never know now. He felt an ache of sadness for her. "Come on!" he said with cheer. "We don't have all day!"

Gwen looked up at him, knowing that he was jumping on the chance to be shone around now because he was uncomfortable with the conversation. Yet she quickly found that she didn't care. She smiled back, happy to see him happy. "Yeah!"

The pair walked into the school quickly, slowly as they came to the first door.

Duncan peeked in through the door. "Cool." He said. "I wish I had a gym in my backyard."

Gwen snorted, rolling your eyes. "It's better than most in the county." She spit out useless information, monitoring his reaction to see if he cared.

He didn't react, walking further in. He gazed about to see if he could find the place they kept the equipment. "Ah." He muttered, heading over to the only other besides the one on the opposite end which was obviously an exit.

Gwen stared after him a moment, knowing that he would be back in a minute with what he always grabbed before anyone else could get to it.

And he did.

Duncan returned with a skateboard like object, the only one in stock here at high school. "Dude!" he exclaimed. "I can't believe that had one! I mean…I remember them being in elementary school, but not here!" he was vibrant.

Gwen laughed, walking over to him. "I knew you'd grab that." She shook her head.

Duncan cocked his head. "You did?"

She nodded. "You always 'borrowed' it and took it home so that the next day when everyone ran for it you'd already have it."

"But…" he started, trailing off.

Despite the fact he'd tried to stop himself Gwen knew what he had went to say and she cringed. "I don't know." She answered. "I guess your subconscious still remembers."

Duncan frowned, looking away for a moment to think of something to say. "So." He began. "How bout we explore the rest of this place?" he put the board on the ground.

Gwen smiled again. "Yes. And you can ride that thing if you want." She chuckled.

Duncan did a fist pump. "Yes!" he hopped on the board which was really not meant to be a skateboard and flew out the door.

Gwen didn't have to go much faster to keep up since it wasn't meant to be a fast mode of transportation and went only slightly faster than her.

All the way down the hall Duncan could be seen doing tricks, never once messing up. "You wanna try?" he asked, flipping the board and landing back on it.

Gwen snorted. "No. It will be a disaster if you let me even step on it." A pause. "I'm not quite as talented as you."

He beamed. "It's nothing but practice." He insisted.

"Yeah. Practice which I haven't had." She reminded. "Now, listen." She ordered. "This part doesn't have much but a computer lab, ROTC, and a few other classes like floral design and agriculture. Nothing you care about."

Duncan did yet another flip, this one much higher in the air. Still, he landed it. "I don't?" he frowned. "I thought computer sounded fun." He shrugged. "But whatever, you know me."

Gwen let her gaze fall to the ground. "Even better than yourself now…" she murmured under her breath.

"So what **do** I like then?" he questioned, tilting his head back to watch her.

"Anything that involves breaking the law." She said with a pained smile. "This basically means no school activities suit you."

"Hmm…" Duncan wasn't paying enough attention to reality now and as such slammed right into the divider of the two doors leading to the center area. And he was down on his butt, his board flying out from under him.

"Duncan!" Gwen cried, sounding more amused than concerned. "You have to pay attention."

Duncan rubbed his head. "Yeah, yeah." He grumbled, getting back to his feet. "I'll remember that."

Gwen quickly moved on, passing through the twin doors. "And this," she grabbed on to the bar, "leads to the center of the school." She giggled. "But running in to it is not recommended."

"Ha, ha." He fake laughed, hopping back on the board and riding through the doors like she had. "How about we go over something that will help me not get lost?"

Gwen rolled her eyes. "Yes, your majesty." She bowed, heading over to the staircase. "The main stairs." She informed. "It leads up to a bunch of classes which we'll get to later." She moved forward, continuing down an old hall.

Duncan followed behind, not deterred from performing his tricks because of his slipup before. "What about here?" he inquired.

"It's one of the halls that never got remodeled. It has the Spanish class," she pointed, "a social studies," she redirected her finger, "and a math."

She noticed he was about to ask about the lockers and beat him to it. "These are freshmen lockers. They get the crummy ones." She laughed.

He nodded, grabbing a lock and turning it over in his fingers. "Seems easy to crack." He said thoughtfully.

"Be my guest." Gwen didn't bother objecting. If he was still him in this category he would do it with or without permission.

It took Duncan five minutes to get it off, but that's all he did. He didn't bother even opening the locker, just put the lock straight back on.

"You didn't look?" she said incredulously.

"Nope." A pause. "I didn't care. I just wanted to see if I could do it. And I can."

Gwen frowned slightly. "You can be weird sometimes."

Duncan grinned. "Don't you love it?" he teased, skating right past her. "No pick up the pace! We're never gonna get through this with you walking like a snail."

Gwen shook her head, smiling all the while. "Fine."

**…**

Gwen had led him all around the school at this point, only the cafeteria remaining. And they had plenty of time. Only an hour or so had passed. "Ready for the last stop?"

Duncan was no longer riding the board, too tired to keep it up. Instead he was walking while carrying it under his arm. "Definitely." He nodded. "I'm getting tired of this place."

Gwen rounded the corner that led to the cafeteria. It was strange to her though. She'd never been there when there was no other soul in sight and it was rather ominous. "It was just recently redone."

"Wow!" he exclaimed upon getting a first look. "Dude, it's as big as the gym!"

She nodded. "Sit." She told him, taking a seat at the table closest to the door.

He shrugged, complying. "This place isn't so bad. It's pretty cool even." He admitted.

Gwen looked intensely at his profile, taking in every inch of his face so as not to forget this moment. It didn't matter that she hated being in this situation, him forgetting her and all, the only thing was that she keep everything about him close to her heart.

"To bad there isn't any food here right now." He grumbled, stomach growling at him.

Gwen chuckled. "Yeah…" she looked over him to the empty room that was usually bustling with life. "It'd be nice, wouldn't it?"

"When did you say this place opens back for school again?" he pondered, a slight smirk working its way onto his lips.

"A few days." She answered without thinking. "Why does it matter?"

"Hmm…" he got back up.

"Where are you going?" she didn't want to lose track of him and then have him go and get caught when the people who watched the school showed up.

"Back there." He nodded. "And I don't need your keys this time." He sounded as if he were taunting her for being useless this time around.

Gwen frowned, getting up too. "There won't be anything back there." She let him know. "It'd be pointless."

He snorted. "That's what you think." He wandered away from her toward the room, hopping right over the stand at the far end without hesitating.

"Ah!" Gwen ran after him, following in his actions with just as much skill. "I'm telling you," she lectured almost like Courtney would have, "there's not going to be any-" she stopped short.

Duncan opened a fridge in the back to reveal food galore. "You were saying?" he raised a brow in amusement.

Gwen shook her head. "Amazing." She admitted.

"So? What do you want?" he pulled out Jello that was shoved far in the back. "I think I'll stick to stuff that doesn't require cooking."

Gwen thought about it for a moment, frowning in concentration, before choosing. "Yeah, gimme some of that too."

Duncan tossed her a couple of containers of it, picking out another one for himself before he dropped down on the floor, leaning back against the fridge.

Gwen blinked confusedly at him. "What now?" she laughed.

"I don't feel like going back out. Here's a good a place as any." He ripped the seal off, eating it with his tongue rather than using a utensil.

"I guess you're right." She agreed, seating herself next to him before emulating his actions with the Jello.

Duncan stopped going at the Jello for a minute, watching Gwen instead. He hadn't really pegged her to be a messy eater like him. Then again, she seemed to mimic him quite often. So who's to say she wasn't merely doing this instead of being herself?

Gwen finished her first cup before realizing Duncan had stopped eating and was staring at her intently. "What?" she said with a smile.

He shrugged. "I was just watching you eat." He admitted, finding no reason to hide it. "It's funny."

Gwen frowned. "You were doing the same!" she jumped on him.

"I know. I just didn't think you'd do the same. That's all."

Gwen sighed softly, leaning her head back on the fridge so she was staring at the ceiling. "I'm not like most girls." She confided. "That's why I don't have any girl friends or friends in general."

Duncan grimaced. "That's not what I meant." He sighed. "You don't have to be like all girls. It was just that I don't know, or remember, girls who are any other way."

It was Gwen's turn to grimace. "I know…" she trailed off, leveling her head so that she could see Duncan more easily out of the corner of her eye. "I just wanted you to know so…so you'd know."

Duncan saw her looking at him out of the corner of her eye and decided he'd at least make it easier on himself. He repositioned himself so that he was turned to partially face her while still leaning on the fridge.

He nodded, watching he pick at her other cup of Jello with her fingers instead of digging into it like before. "You have to stop doing that." He finally said.

Gwen looked up. "What?" she feigned innocence.

"You know what." He growled. "You can't keep getting depressed just because of these moments, moments where you're reminded of the fact that I barely know you anymore."

Gwen cringed. "I don't know-"

"Look, you can't get away with lying to me. You are obviously hurt every time it happens." He shook his head. "But it has to stop."

"What if I can't?" she mumbled. "What if it becomes instinct…?"

Duncan sighed irritably. "You can and it won't!" he snapped. "You just have to believe that." He ran his fingers through his hair. "The sooner you get that through your thick skull the sooner this mess will become so much easier for you." A pause. "And me too." He added.

Gwen scrutinized his face, knowing how to detect a lie pretty well thanks to the old Duncan, and found no trace of deceit. It both pleased her and saddened her. It was nice that he too was suffering despite his initial indifference to her, but it sucked that he was serious about changing.

Duncan sensed she was going over him like a lie detector and let her do it until she was satisfied before speaking again. "And then maybe you can rechannel the negativity into helping me."

It wasn't like he really believed he needed help so to speak, but he did have a tiny desire to remember all about the girl before him and perhaps even Courtney. At least, if the latter would allow it and the former was willing to give such info.

Gwen tapped her chin thoughtfully, frowning. "Maybe…" she admitted. She really did want to help him, so…why not?

"Are you gonna eat that then?" Duncan quickly jumped topics, pointing at her barely touched Jello cup.

His short attention span made her laugh lightly and brought a soft smile to her face. "Go for it." She threw it at him.

"Thanks." He muttered before digging into it like the first.

Gwen realized that he too hadn't touched his second one, but she didn't mention the fact. Either he'd eat it or he wouldn't, it made no difference to her. She was content to sit here until then.

Even after Duncan had finished both of the remaining cups off they didn't get up. They sat there looking about the room and at each other to their hearts content.

There was little reason to leave.

**I tried to make Gwen less annoying, I hope I succeeded. Also, if you didn't notice, my style has changed some since my last update and I want to know if it's better. It'd be nice if you let me know about Gwen more though. Please review! :D**


	6. The Return

**Wow is this a blast from the past or what. It's been at least two years since I've worked on this. Most of you probably not even care about this story or moved on from the fandom, huh? I don't blame you. But I've had a sudden spark for this story after stumbling onto a post with DxG stories the person thought were great and this one was on this list. It made me feel really good about myself and then I couldn't help but write on it again. I'm sure you know who you are if you're reading this.**

**As far as quality I am _so_ much better than two years ago. My style is a million times different, most noticeably that I now use present tense. So for anyone who still reads this then I guarantee that this update, while imo short, will be be a good read. I'm making no promises for the time schedule of other updates though. We'll have to see where this spark and any reviews carry me. Well, enjoy!**

**P.S My song of inspiration was Red by Taylor Swift. Kind of fits Duncney better, but the lines of 'losing him' and 'missing him' plus the 'flashbacks and echoes' reminded me of his memory loss and in that sense Gwen has lost him.**

They sit for a long time. The sounds fade into the background, all of them but their soft breathing. Gwen focuses on the noise and it brings another layer of calm to her. After a while she shifts her gaze to his face.

Duncan looks straight ahead. A small smirk curves his lips. Like this he can see for an instant how he hung around this girl. She makes him feel loose and free and he even forgets for a moment that she is now a worry prone nag. For a moment he even contemplates the notion of being her friend.

Gwen smiles softly. Duncan's eyes are half open, but he definitely isn't asleep. She's seen that expression countless times over her relationship with him and all it means is he's thinking. About what – she only wishes she knew. Usually it would be mischief, but after everything recently it could be anything, most likely her.

Duncan finally notices from the corner of his eye that she is looking at him. He turns his head and looks straight back at her. Her eyes draw him in and are more than a little intriguing. They are unimaginably dark, like nothing he remembers seeing before.

Gwen's heart beats a little faster. She opens her mouth to say something when she notices the clock on the wall just past him. Her eyes widen and she sucks in a sharp breath. _That late?_ "Oh my God." She gasps. She leaps to her feet. "We've gotta go. **Now**."

Duncan starts. He blinks twice up at her. He makes a face. "What? Why? It's nice here." He chuckles. "And we've got all the Jello we could want." He motions at the fridge.

Gwen scowls at him. "I mean it. Get up." She reaches down and grips his wrist fiercely. She pulls for all she's worth. "Stop lollygagging."

He snorts. "Lollygagging?" He parrots. "What are you – eighty?"

"Duncan." Her voice verges on shrill. "Move it." She grits her teeth and clenches her eyes shut as if doing so will give her the strength to pull him up and along.

"Alright, alright." He groans. He pushes himself up and shoots her an aggravated look. "Why the hell is this such a big deal anyway? What's the rush?" He tugs his arm away from her and crosses them over his chest.

Gwen sighs in exasperation. "They're gonna be here soon." She looks at him as if he's stupid. "And if they'll kill you if they catch you here – anywhere at the school."

Duncan stares blankly at her for an instant. Then he snorts. "What? You're not good enough to kill?" He half smirks.

Gwen rolls her eyes. A hint of a smile shows through in her eyes. "When compared to you – no." She's paid her dues at least. Those instances in the first year are nothing more than memories.

Duncan scoffs. "Well, whatever." He shrugs. "Let's go back." He wishes home, but he knows he needs to go to the hospital. More than that he knows she won't let him skip out. She'll get all preachy and mopey if he tries.

Gwen sighs heavily. She smiles in relief. "Alright, there's a back way in the kitchen." She nods to her right. "It's the best way to avoid the patrols." She takes a hold of his arm again and never lets go as she walks with him.

Duncan frowns suddenly. His brow creases and he looks thoughtfully over at her. "Patrols?" He tilts his head slightly. "What do you mean? You make the school sound like some sort of detention center." He chuckles at the absurdity.

Gwen grimaces. She bows her head. Of course he'd ask. It's so Duncan. "It's…complicated." She whispers. She bites her lip. "You…wouldn't understand." Maybe when he gets his memories back, _if _he gets them back, she'll tell him. But not now. It's too soon.

Duncan's confusion rises by the second. He scowls at her, but not at her – at the situation. "Oh, come on. It can't be that bad. Just tell me. I mean," He half laughs. "I won't remember anything that went along with it so it can't hurt me."

Gwen shakes her head stiffly. "No, I can't." She won't be swayed by him. Not this time. "Just…give it time." He might find out the truth sooner than he wants.

Duncan stares incredulously at her for a long moment. He searches her face for something. What exactly he isn't sure, he just knows he doesn't find it. He growls deep in his throat. "Fine." He jerks his hand from her. He'll just figure it out on his own.

Gwen sighs. "Duncan…don't be like that." She cuts in front of him and turns to face him, blocking the exit. She plants her hand on her hips and stares in a mix of concern and irritation.

"I'll be however I want to be." He nods firmly. "Now get out of the way so I can find the stupid car." He pushes her hard enough to move her but lightly enough so as not to hurt her. He storms through the door without a second thought.

Gwen grumbles under her breath and goes to follow him, freezing. Her eyes bulge and a tiny squeak works its way out of her throat. She sprints forward and tackles him.

Duncan hears her and glances back, but he doesn't expect what he sees. She's a blur and he starts, but there is no time for more. She crashes into him and he hits the ground hard. He hisses on impact and his eyes catch fire. "You-"

Gwen slams her hand over his mouth. She holds his squirming body down. "Shut up." She hisses. She holds her breath and prays for a miracle.

A man passes only a few feet in front of them. He looks with narrowed eyes ahead of him. He starts to turn their way when another voice comes their way. They say something about a break in on the opposite side of the school and without wasting another second they leave.

Gwen lets out her breath. She removes her hand from Duncan's mouth and scoots off of him. "Sorry." She ducks her head and looks with shame anywhere but at him. "I…I had to. They, would have caught us."

Duncan growls and smacks his fist into the concrete as he shoves himself to his knees. His eyes burn into her and his lips curve down sharply. "I think I'd take my chances." He wipes his hand across his mouth and glances at the back of it – red. Blood.

Gwen tentatively meets his gaze. "I didn't mean to hurt you." Her voice is barely audible. A shiver races up her spine. She wonders with a rising panic if she could have exacerbated his condition. Her heart hammers frantically.

Duncan sees the girl he knew back in the hospital returning. He grimaces. He hates that girl – whether from how annoying she is or how some distant part of him hurts to see her in pain. "I'm fine." He sighs. "Just…don't get upset."

Gwen's eyes widen slightly. "What?" Could he actually care about her feelings? Was he really changing so quickly? No…it must just be how he feels about her worrisome and coddling side.

"Come on." He gets up and holds a hand out to her. "Before those idiots come back." He smiles, tickled at the thought of their previous entry into the school being the source of distress for the patrols.

Gwen smiles slightly. She reads his eyes and sees the spark within them as delight over the guards' quick flight. Even without his memories, he is still as familiar to her as ever. She takes his hand and lets him pull her up.

Duncan pauses for a beat. He keeps ahold of her hand and looks curiously down at her. Then a thought comes to him. "You alright then?" He tilts his head.

Gwen snorts. She pulls her gaze away from his. "Don't get soft on me." She shoves him playfully. She smirks and slips her hand out of his. "Come on." She nods toward the parking lot. "I'd rather not get blamed for a certain criminal going missing in the hospital."

Duncan snorts. "Alright." Together they make their way back to the car. They leave with no one seeing them and head toward the hospital. They avoid any close calls with traffic this time and it is soon, too soon, that they park in the hospital lot.

"Here we are." Duncan grumbles with feigned enthusiasm. He spins his finger around and sighs softly. His brows rest far down on his head.

Gwen frowns. "Oh come on." She hits him in the side with an elbow. "This place helped save you. You could be a little more grateful." She looks up to the building. Although admittedly it's intimidating. Or maybe that's just because she nearly lost him here.

Duncan rolls his eyes. "I don't have to do anything." He trots forward, away from the car. "Well, let's get this over with already." His skin crawls with the sudden feeling that they are already caught. He glances at Gwen, following just behind him. She too is suddenly sullen.

Gwen grimaces. She hugs herself and keeps her eyes to the ground. They know. She can feel it. The people at the hospital saw him missing and the instant the two walk through the door or even just into sight the attendants will be on them.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to." Duncan suggests. "I am perfectly capable of walking back to my room alone." He cracks a smile and tries to make the situation a joke. But it's no use. The air is as thick as ever.

Gwen forces a tiny smile. She doesn't look at him. "No, I…I want to go." It's half true. She does and she doesn't. She wants to be with him – always – but she doesn't want to deal with the backlash waiting for them. Unfortunately, she can't have the best of both worlds.

Before they even enter they are swarmed. The doors fly open and out come frantic nurses, Duncan's mother, and then Courtney herself. "My God!" His mother exclaims. She throws herself at him and wraps her arms tightly about his neck. "Duncan! I thought you'd run off for good. I thought you were wandering around in confusion."

Duncan grimaces. "Mom," He whines. "You don't need to be that way. I'm fine." He pries her arms off of him and pushes her back a step from him. "I just needed to get out, that's all."

His mother fans herself as her breathing grows increasingly erratic. Then she notices the girl at his side. She narrows her eyes at Gwen. "_You_," She grits teeth. "You let him do this! You helped him! What's wrong with you? He's hurt!"

Gwen cringes and ducks her head further with every sharp word his mother says. "I…I didn't…" She did. She tried not to, but ultimately she did. It's like being an accomplice to a crime.

"Didn't?" She shrieks. "Didn't what? _Think._" Her hands clench and quiver. "Yeah, I noticed."

"Mom," Duncan says in a low tone. He looks at her with a disgruntled expression.

"Not now Duncan." She holds her hand up at him. "I bet Courtney would have never let him get out like that. **She** knows how to handle him and situations with **logic**."

Gwen blanches. What? Courtney? She…she's worse than Courtney?

Duncan sees the look plastered across Gwen's face and a chord of memory strikes within him. He remembers a timid girl not much younger than this and people he no longer knows surrounding her. She was caught somewhere between hurt and furious back then – like she might kill them and cry over their corpses in one fell swoop.

Courtney takes a firm step forward. She holds her head high and looks down condescendingly at Gwen. "Yeah," She grins conceitedly. "I would have treated Duncan properly. Unlike you, you selfish, incompetent-"

"ENOUGH." Duncan cuts into the attack. "Leave her alone. She's right – she didn't do jack. **I'm** the one who wanted out, **I'm** the one who forced her to go. So just knock it off." He steps sideways between Gwen and the others.

Gwen states with widening eyes. She can only see the back of his head, but she can practically _feel_ the furious passion vibrating from him. Her shameful eyes shine with knowing. This is him. This is the boy she became friends with.

The nurses are most appalled. "You crazy kid!" They squawk together. "Do you want to kill yourself?" They shake their heads. "We're the doctors – not you. You listen to us."

Duncan scoffs. "Oh, relax." Duncan waves hi hand dismissively. "I'm here now aren't I? And perfectly fine." He shakes his head. "You all worry way too much.

A sharp cry punctuates the air then and makes everyone start. They all turn their gazes to see Courtney is the source. She plunges her face into her hands and wails. "I was so worried." Her words stutter a bit. "You just ran off without me."

_Oh God. _Gwen rolls her eyes before narrowing them at Courtney. There she goes again – making the situation about her. Unfortunately Duncan no longer knows this game. Unless, of course, there were girls long before her who he can associate to this.

Duncan's brows knit together. That's right. She's supposedly his girlfriend. A grimace spreads across his face. "Look," He rubs the back of his neck. "Sorry, I mean…you just kind of left before and I…" He shrugs. "I forget."

Courtney lifts her head and wipes a hand over her eyes. She sniffles. "Just…please don't do it again." She whispers. "And, please, come with me." She steps forward and takes both his hands in hers. She tugs on him, trying to bring him into the hospital.

Duncan glances with uncertainty back at Gwen. He reaches out to her with his eyes for some sort of guidance. He may only have known Gwen for a day with his condition, but that's more than the girl before her. What was her name again? Courtney?

Gwen glowers at Courtney, but she presses her lips tightly against each other and doesn't say a word. She wishes she could help Duncan, really. But protesting will only make his defense of her for naught and they'll all attack her again.

In the end Duncan has no choice but to submit to Courtney. He lets her pull him along and he keeps his eyes back on Gwen until they disappear around the corner and only white walls fill his vision. His attention is so scattered that he doesn't notice the smirk that spreads across Courtney's lips.

Courtney was worried, really. It's just the satisfaction of taking him away from Gwen is too great to keep her long in her distraught state. And his skin against her's as her fingers curl around his hand makes her feel more at peace. She even sighs softly.

Gwen stares long after they leave. She longs to follow, but before she can even rebuke herself, everyone else is on it. "And don't even **think** of going back in there." Duncan's mother and all the nurses say together. "You're a terrible influence."

Gwen cringes, but she is strangely unaffected for the most part. Duncan's defense still echoes in her head. _Leave her alone. She's right – she didn't do jack._ It soothes her otherwise disturbed emotions. "I won't." She says smoothly. She even manages a smile. "I just wanted to help him back. You know, so he didn't get hurt."

Duncan's mother snorts. "Sure you did." She sneers and throws her head into the air as she turns hard on her heel. She stomps back into the hospital without another word to the goth girl. She hopes she never has to deal with her again.

The nurses nod firmly and follow after her. They've already been too long gone from their work. They especially need to check on Duncan. They need to discern just what the delinquent got in to and if it was at all harmful.

Gwen stands there a long time. She stares blankly at the glass sliding doors. She sees herself and for a moment doesn't recognize her reflection. Her hair is frayed and deep purple rims frame her eyes. She reaches up and lightly touches her face, making sure it's real.

She wonders if she'll see Duncan again before the summer's end. It's only another week until then. If he is not released from the hospital she doubts it. A scowl flickers across her expression. And if Courtney or his mother has anything to say about it then he won't be going anywhere.

She snickers, they probably plan to set up patrols to make sure he can't escape on his own. Then her lips curve into a deep frown. Thinking of patrols inevitably reminds her of the school. With only a week to recover and now surely without her to help, how will Duncan handle the return?

Half the people at the school probably won't even know anything happened to him. The other half will surely give him odd looks or treat him differently – not that he will notice. Still, it causes a sickening swelling deep within her and her worry spikes. Hopefully she can get to him before anything bad happens or someone mentions the shooting.

Gwen turns away from the doors. How is she supposed to even get home anyway? She lifts her gaze to the car. She snorts. _Yeah…__**right**__. _She trudges on past it. She'll just have to walk. This time alone. Her heart clenches. She wishes she had just taken him to her house. They both would have been the better for it.

But it's too late for that. And so she walks. She walks until the tears stream down her face and she is overcome with hopelessness and loneliness. Then she keeps on walking anyway, walks to outrun her memories.

It never happens.

**So how was it? Notice any inconsistencies? I don't remember exact details from previous updates, but maybe you do. And ****I hope that despite the age of this you still enjoy the update. Please review!**


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